Phil Starke Art Talk

A full moon in the Southwest is a great time to paint outside.  It’s not as difficult as it sounds.  On a night where there is a full moon, between 8 and 10 pm, that’s when the moon is lower and seems to be brighter, you can see a lot of strong contrast between light and dark.  Edges past the foreground are a lot softer because of the dark, but the foreground can have a lot of variety because of the strong light.

I start with two booklights that I bought at Barnes and Noble.  One clipped on top of the easel to shine on the painting and one down below shining on the pallette.  The light from the moon is a bluish-green so I replace ultramarine blue with prussian blue.  Also the lights appear cooler with the blue-greenlight and the shadows recede and become very dark and appear warmer or more red.  I work small, 8 x 10 or 6 x 8 and I work fast because it can get a little creepy out in the desert at night when the nocturnal animals begin to roam.  You can’t see anything but you can sure hear them.  A couple of painters that handle nocturnal painting well were Frank Tenney Johnson and presently Bill Anton.

  This is one of my nocturnal paintings.  I really enjoy the challenge, you might too.