Day Trip

A week ago, I took a drive out to two state parks near St. Louis.  At the first one, Rockwoods Reservation, I found this old lime kiln.  I did the sketch on location and then painted it the next day at home.

Complementary colors are at play here: red and green.  Obviously, the kiln is a red brick building.  And trees are green.  But study the ground and you'll see that the red repeats there.  And the two foreground tree trunks are alternately red and green. 

If you squint your eyes, you'll see that this is nearly a two value job.  I've used the spotlight effect to draw your eye to the kiln.

Figures provide interest as well as scale.  And a spot of red there doesn't hurt either!