From a little detail came a whole new painting. Two and a half years ago I painted Winter Barge in the midst of the COVID lockdown. The Crescent City Connection, a modest detail on the horizon, was shown in toothpick simplification. I later did pretty detailed paintings of the bridge over the Mississippi in Natchez and Memphis. When I pulled them all out to look at them I realized that the New Orleans bridge was not up to par compared to the other two.
In March I went to Crescent Park to do a small down-river study after visiting it with my fellow painter John Whelan. Then this month I decided to do a full painting of the West Bank from the Piety Wharf. Before going over, I sketched out the bridge’s general proportions and the buildings behind the levee in red and gray acrylic. Parts of the underpainting had the out-of-focus look of an old discolored daguerreotype.
I left Gulfport before dawn so that I could paint that delicate early morning New Orleans light. I went over two mornings in a row and brought the painting back to do the struts and beams of the truss bridge in the studio. It was a great experience. I believe I captured plenty of perceptual painting at the scene and was able to finish the necessary but tedious bridge detail in the controlled setting of the studio.
The quality of the light can sharply change how this piece looks, much more than is usual with paintings. The photo above is how it looks under basic studio light. The video clip below is shot in early morning light and leans hard into the blues.