Photos and Imagination

 

 

Here is a photo I took in Acadia National Park in Maine.  Although the cliffs were dramatic in person, the photo does little to communicate that.  The light is especially dull, and it flattens the scene.

While looking out my window here in St. Louis the other day, I saw the effects of early evening sun hitting my neighbor's roof with shadows cast by another building highlighting the orange glow of the shingles.  That gave me the idea to apply that effect to this scene in Acadia.  The light is early morning, and another cliff unseen to the left is casting its long shadow on the cliff in the painting.
I also decided to make the rocky, pebble strewn beach into a sandy shore so that the textures would not draw attention to the beach, but let the color-and-light show on the face of the cliff be the "star" of the painting.

Asking "What if.....?"  will sometimes help spur your imagination to think of other lighting situations that will go a long way to dramatizing a scene.