Sunset Over the Atlantic pastel 16 x 20
Getting dressed to get ready for dinner on our vacation cruise, Don, my husband, called me to the outside balcony. WOW! What a magnificent sunset! Mesmerized, I grabbed the camera and snapped away. I knew I would have to paint it. 
photo out on the balcony
The colors were breathtaking! All those rich yellows and deep pinks against the violets and grays. Truly a spectacular sight! I haven’t done a painting just focusing on the sky.
The challenges here are multiple.
1. Making the sky compositional exciting, to try to draw the viewer into the scene.
2. How not to make all those colors garish and phony looking.
3. Since the horizon line is actually straight across the painting, this line has to be broken up someway. This will make it a little more interesting so as not to cut the painting in half.
Hopefully, I overcame these challenges. Notice, I did change the cloud formation a bit to make a more interesting composition.
This painting was done on Ampersand gray pastelboard. I love this surface. It seems to have the right amount of sanded surface and is very forgivable.
Sunset Over the Atlantic was just juried into the Southeastern Pastel Society’s Member Show, along with Mykonos Shopping Day. The show opens May 16 at the Carrollton Cultural Arts Center, Carrollton, GA.