I really enjoy painting nocturnal scenes from my memory and/or imagination, and for a while have been tossing around in my head the concept of a fire sending sparks skyward to mingle with the stars.
The summer of 2020 still being fresh in my mind, it wasn’t hard to decide on an evening back-burn being lit by a volunteer fire-fighter. In doing so, I portrayed him as focusing on his task, seemingly unaware of the night-time beauty around him, blinded by the flames, watched by the silent trees and the distant grandeur of the milky way. Yet he’s not a villain, he’s acting to protect the forest from the destruction of an out-of-control wildfire.
One thing I really love about night scenes is the opportunity to accentuate light and shadow. Not only the strong contrast of the fires themselves, but the glow and reflections they cast everywhere, along with the subtle abstract luminosity of plants & flowers. This work is one of my favourites to date, and is a theme that I’m likely to come back to and explore further.
By the way, in this painting I decided to start with a black gesso – why not, as it was going to be predominated by dark colours? I should have thought more carefully before doing this – with oils it would have been fine, but acrylics are largely translucent paints. It took SO MANY coats before the colours started to show through instead of disappearing into the background. Lesson learned.
