A Welcome Sunrise

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.

$400 $400