A Welcome Sunrise

by Erica Lyn Schmidt

The initial inspiration for this piece came from taking drives in mid-winter Wisconsin at golden hour. The white snow highlights the colors that play as the sun sinks and the sky becomes colorful. I began to notice how the yellow sunlight went straight into bright blue shadows, and I wanted to try my hand at painting it.

This painting was created for the BirdWhisperer Project in December 2016, with the Grey Jay as the prompt. I imagined this tiny bird braving the winter months, and what it must feel like to finally feel the warm sun after an especially long winter night. As I was painting, I discovered that adding a bit of red to the transition between yellow and blue gave the piece the warm feeling I was going for. I also added the slightest touch of white gold into the paint at the strongest highlights to add a subtle glow–this effect is unique to the original painting.

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Erica Lyn Schmidt

Erica Lyn Schmidt is a fine artist living in Wisconsin, USA. Her primary media includes polymer clay, acrylic, and oils. After spending many years in scientific and children’s illustration, she found her true love of fine art in the genre of imaginative realism.

Blurring the lines between traditional painting and sculpture, her work explores the deeper meaning of life’s experiences through whimsical animals, metaphor, and prose. She loves creating characters that didn’t exist before, like conjuring new friends out of thin air. Sometimes a project takes on a life of its own—in these moments it feels like there’s magic in the room.

Erica has been a staple on the roster of Every Day Original, in several volumes of Infected by Art, and on the Chesley Suggestion List twice in the category of Three Dimensional Art. Beyond her own work, she strives to empower other artists as Community Manager of the artist coaching program Unleash Creativity with Marc Scheff. Her past clients include Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 78 Tarot, Royal Tyrrell Museum, Burpee Museum of Natural History, private scientists and collectors.