Monday, March 22, 2010

The Red Bell

8x10 Oil on Canvas Sold
You never know what will catch your eye. On this dull rainy day, all the colors seemed muted, even with the reflected sidewalk. Then there was one bright spot of color on the bicycle bell. I decided to paint with a limited palette to portray the lack of color in the scene and used transparent earth brown, black, white and cadmium red.
This scene is from Yonge Street in Toronto.

11 comments:

Sarah said...

Unusual, I love the composition and the contrast between the muted palette and the bright spot of colour works well.

Pam Holnback said...

The bell caught your eye. Your painting caught mine. Love it!

Gwen Bell said...

Wonderful and dramatic. Great lighting! That one bright spot of red makes the entire painting sing.

Ramesh Jhawar said...

Lovely!! I like your decision of painting the scene in muted colors to highlight the red.

Violetta Smith said...

I love the limited palette and yellowish under paint. Simple and brilliant.

Unknown said...

Excellent light . Very nice shades and tones.

Marie Theron said...

I missed this post and am glad to find it now! This is such a nice and unusual composition. The light rules supreme in your work as always!

Unknown said...

This is so cool Catherine! Images like this reinforce the reason why you're one of my favorite artists!

Linny D. Vine said...

Isn't wonderful how much inspiration a little red provides. I love your perspective - great painting!

Carol Schiff Daily Painting said...

This is a masterpiece of understatement! I love everything about it, subject matter, composition, muted colors...WOW!

Thanks for the link in today's post.

Montag said...

It is Mr. Hulot's bicycle...a film by Jacques Tati.