Harbour Town Light House, 36 x 48, oil on canvas

Cathy and I were in Hilton Head last week so that I could do this painting for a friend. She actually took the photo that I worked from because the weather did not cooperate. I wasn't sure about doing a large painting of the light house because that's so ordinary and everyone else has already done it. Then it occurred to me that Edward Hopper did light houses and did them his way. So I tried a risky composition – centering the light house. The boats and trees were used in the foreground as an entry point and to offset the bullseye effect of the light house. These elements lead the viewer to the far left background. The hazy sunshine that saturated the scene required a lot of gray. You notice it in the water and sky. My palette knife was used to paint the entire sky. It created nice, soft edges to the cloud formations.