#Commute No. 10
Sometimes it is REALLY HARD for me to pick out which commute image I'm going to paint next. Every now and then one will stand out to me because of an event or the season or whatever, and other times I have 4 or 5 I'd like to do and I can't decide. (That's when I usually reach out to you guys for help on social media.) I also purposefully try to choose one that's different than ones I've done before, but especially compared to the most recent one I've done. I want the series to have some flavor and differentiation between the various paintings.
This month I thought it was going to be one of those cases where I had several to choose from, but then this one jumped out at me. The thing I love about it is obviously the color. Look at that sky! If I was painting a landscape like this out of my brain, there's no way I would have fabricated a sky with all of those colors in it like that. Yet here it is, and nature produced it on its own. Isn't that crazy? Whenever I see something like a blood orange horizon butted up against some pink and purple hues, it just takes my breath away that the world can produce such beauty. I love it.
I try to do these paintings very quickly and loosely, and this one came together particularly fast. I started it the other evening thinking I'd just get some base colors down and finish it the next night. But then about twenty or thirty minutes later I realized it was probably done. That's what this series has been all about for me - just relaxing and fooling around with Photoshop to create a fun and pretty landscape. No pressure to be perfect about it, just being super loose with my digital "paint brush" and having fun with color. They make me smile, so I hope you love them too.
Pictured above is the original Instagram photo (on the left) next to the final painting inspired by it. You can read more about why I started this series here, and you can see my photo editing process for the Instagram photos here.
Painting at top created in Photoshop.
Prints of my work (plus other products with my work on them) are available in my Society6 shop.
