The Civilized Engineer

My step-father jokes that civil engineers aren’t very civil.  But he is a civil engineer and he is both civil and civilized.  Here is a painting I did of him last year.  The poise is characteristic and setting his own home.  It isn’t a portrait, but everyone who sees it recognizes him immediately.

We will be visiting him and my mother for a few days.  I just finished showing the house sitter around.  She’s very helpful, about watering the garden and feeding the dog,  but she won’t ship paintings for me.  Any paintings purchased before I get back  will have to be shipped after I return.

Pub Talk (10 x 14) $125

I love to paint people and I love the interior light of dark restaurants with the sun streaming in through the side windows. Unfortunately if I sketch or photograph people in bars or restaurants they stop acting naturally. I have developed a sneaky system for photographing them. If I use the LED screen as a view finder and turn off the flash, people think I am reviewing previously taken photos rather than taking new ones. I took the photos for this scene in just that way.

I tried pouring this scene first. The result had lovely color and value, but it was rougher than I liked. I loved the light, but didn’t think I could pour it with greater clarity.

Poured Version of Pub Talk

So I did a little sketching and then painted directly with the same colors I used for the pour: phthalo blue, burnt sienna, raw sienna, dioxazine purple, and cobalt blue.

Pub Talk Sketch

I still like the beautiful poured background in my first attempt, and I may do this one again tomorrow using directly painted figures and a poured background.