Winter Sky over Costco

I chose this subject for a quick study for one reason: painting that wisp of smoke against that clear sky. I was driving home early one morning and the smokestack stood out against one of those clear blue skies. And in the stillness of the early morning, it was puffing along and the smoke was the only thing moving around it (Costco hadn’t opened yet).

Halfway into the painting it reminded me of Charles Demuth’s And the Home of the Brave (1931). I like how he broke the scene into planes. I was going for the contrast of the architecture with the organic smoke, reducing the building to its simplest forms and colors to put even more focus on the smoke.

---