I painted this for my nephew's wedding back in June. We all flew to Charleston for the first marriage of this generation. The wedding reception took place at the cotton dock at Boone Hall Plantation.
While not a plein air piece, I tried to keep it consistent with my plein air approach: simplifying shapes and pushing colors toward vibrancy..thus the title.
I took about 10 photos during the reception and also stared at the colors and did a small pencil sketch that I labelled with color names to jog my memory( ie soft gold, russet , orangey green).
The three challenges I faced were: I usually avoid foregrounds, because they are hard to simplify, I don't usually paint water and there wasn't a hill in sight. Also, there was so much moisture in the air compared with California, the effect on the light was very different. I also wanted the bride and groom to like it and do a painting that they would want to keep a long time.
I am pleased with how the painting came out.
Charleston was really beautiful, we stayed on Sullivan's Island and although I didn't have my paints with me, I hope to get back there to paint.
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