The oil paint equivalent of glitter

Brand new paintings in my studio

These are new:  two in the aforementioned tree series, a tiny trailer and, from a photo by Sean Vallely, fires on Ocean Beach. All are pretty much true to their photographic sources, except that I felt the one on the left, the tree with Victorians, needed a little something extra. On Castro Street there is a tree that looks positively magical when you are walking down the hill towards the Castro in the evening and the lights shining through from ahead seem to twinkle in its branches.  So I gave my tree some tiny lights, a little sparkle from the streetlight. Then I turned a house into a car in the tree with the moon - magic! Then  I stretched a big preprimed canvas and it was all  floppy, until I sprayed water on the back and it's now like a drum - I'm easily pleased!
Our open studio is two months away, and because we travelled so much this year, I feel like I just have to catch up. I've also spent quite a bit of time reworking old paintings but really only because I enjoy it. Once the figures are in place, which they are in these two larger-scaled works, it's just a matter of changing the colors to give the painting more dimension and mood. Remember how much fun coloring books were? It's like that. Almost a year ago I started reworking. I will post images when they are done so you can see what I was talking about.
Sorry for the crappy photo this month - I couldn't seem to save changes to the image and I want to get out and enjoy this beautiful Labor Day.
If  you'd like to get on my mailing list for the Open Studios postcard, I suggest sending me a message via my hadleynorthrop.com Contact form. Also visit me on ArtSpan and find out all about San Francisco Open Studios. November 1 and 2.