Cityscapes Redux

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, cityscapes have occupied a lot of my studio time lately. The life of cities presents lots of opportunities for interesting compositions and situations, often with implied narrative or color inventions. While I've done many images of cities like New York and Paris, a lot of my newer works are based here in Des Moines. While the largest city in Iowa, Des Moines is dwarfed by many metropolitan areas but with two rivers, many bridges, and dozens of picturesque streets and area, the city simply begs to be painted. A handful of current works:

"The Red Umbrella," 2016

This picture is quite small at 8x6 but the subject, colors, and composition interested me. It may evolve into a larger work, but for now this stands alone as a completed oil painting. It was great fun putting these colors into a nocturnal view of a European city.

"Near Dawn," 2016

"Near Dawn" is what I've titled this nocturne of Des Moines. It's 16x20 on hardboard panel. I was interested in how the night is lighted from different sources--streetlamps, stores, apartments, and the like.

"Dos Rios (study)," 2016

This final painting is an 8x10 study for a larger work. The street is lined on both sides with restaurants and watering holes frequented by the young up-and-coming crowd in Des Moines. "Dos Rios" is the name of the painting and the name of the restaurant.

Cityscapes (4/1/2016)