Sun becomes moon

I went on a trip to Europe in 2019 and got back just before COVID-19 became a pandemic.

On my trip, I went to many art galleries. I was looking at art from a different perspective. Not just as someone who appreciated it, but as someone who was interested in the painter's techniques.

I became really interested in the way the artist painted light. Especially in the work of Arkhip Kuindzhi. The light in his images has a vibrant, magical quality which I really loved.

On my return, I watched a documentary about nature in the Alsace. One image was so beautiful that I took a screenshot of it and decided that I'd try to paint it.

My attempt to re-create it:

A much lighter depiction. As you can see, the sun became a moon. I couldn't capture the same intensity of colour, and the sun just never looked like a sun. So, although it messes with the direction of the shadows etc, I added some shadows to change the sun into a moon. I quite like how the pink of the moon pops because of those shadowy craters.

This year, I also decided to paint a face of a lady from Daghestan (Inspired by Der Zauberberg's Madame Chauchat). I found a picture of the Daghestani lady and tried to paint a likeness as best as I could. Of all my paintings, I am most proud of this one.

Apparently, I didn't try very hard when taking the photo!

Her face is much paler than in the original photo, which I can no longer find, sadly. Her eyes are quite pretty, but perhaps I have added so much detail to them that other details in the painting seem to be lacking.

The background changed colour many times. I decided to let it go and move on to other paintings. I hope she's not too cold!

This year, I was also inspired to paint a Russian dacha - perhaps something similar to what my Daghestani lady would live in. Well, perhaps if she were Russian!

I like some aspects of the house. The light and shadow around the windows etc. Once again, I tend to use such vibrant colours and although I painted this from a reference photo of a dacha on a sunny afternoon, my colours are a little too intense.

My next painting was much more bleak, painted from a photo of a chalet in the Swiss Alps (I think...).

I really like this picture and the way I have painted the mountains in the distance. I'm on the right track in terms of perspective too. I like the snowy trees, although they tend to blend into one big tree on the far left.