Forts and Ports

These are two more small plein air gouache paintings. I lived in Dubrovnik, Croatia for three months while I taught a plein air sketchbook class and I lived right next to the ancient walled city on the Adriatic Sea. There was no shortage of stunning scenery and inspiration. These paintings depict two forts on opposite ends of the city. The top piece is of the Fortress of Lovijenac which is just west of the walls near Pile Gate. The lower piece depicts St. John's Fortress, overlooking the Old Town Harbor near Ploce Gate. Lokrum Island is visible in the background of each painting. Later in this series you will see many pieces from Lokrum Island as it was a major source of inspiration for me in my final months there.

Island Sunset

With this painting, I started to make some changes to my normal working habits. It was still painted on location with gouache, but I started working smaller and also started to use more flat sable brushes. This original is 5" x 7" and I made the decision to work smaller due to the extreme lighting situations that I was encountering. My larger gouache pieces were taking about two hours to complete and within that time frame the light was changing rapidly. I needed to work quicker if I was going to depict the dramatic light that I am drawn to. This is looking west from Lapad just before sunset on the Adriatic Sea.

Old Town Arch

This is a plein air painting of a street scene and arch in Old Town, Dubrovnik. Everything is ancient and built of limestone. The overall "grayness" starts to make your eyes search for color and suddenly I found myself sensitive to the slightest hint of it. A hint of warm light starts to seem almost vibrant and some of the late day shadows were full of great, gray-violets.

This was done in late March before the tourist season really kicked in. One month later and this scene would have been full of people.

Gouache 9 x 12