Capturing an awesome sunrise with the intense colors and shadows in the early morning can be breathtaking. This sunrise was remarkable. I took many photos and spent twenty minutes or longer just watching the light as the sun rose on a frigid cold January 23, 2024. The view is from a park on top of a hill looking across Peabody and Salem Massachusetts towards the harbor. There were so many hues of intense reds, magentas, oranges and yellows and two small clear blue openings. The two blue opening were in sharp contrast with the backlighting and reflections on the clouds. It was spectacular and very memorable. The truth is I painted the first three stages without a reference photograph and only used the reference photo in the last stage.
My palette included, orange lake, alizarin crimson, cad red light, cad yellow light and deep, manganese violet, cobalt blue and burnt umber.
I will post a few stages in the painting process:
Oil Paintings, Plein Air, Prints, Hand Drawn Tessellations 