New York skies

July 20 24x36 oil, copyright Erica Keener

A quick trip back to Manhattan for this one.  Actually, it was painted several weeks ago, but the paint is so thick it has taken a long time to dry.  It's been awhile since I've done any of my abstracted sky paintings, and this one didn't start out that way.  Based on a photo I took from the terrace of our hotel, I originally intended to include a building under construction.  It was a beautiful clear day and the clouds were reflecting in the windows and showing through the unfinished skeleton of the structure.  But as I started layering the blues, they just sort of took over.  Usually a two hour stretch at a time is enough for me - my back gets tired and I start to get bored - but this time I went for about 3 1/2 hours before I quit.  The paint just kept getting thicker until I was almost sculpting it.  Too bad I didn't think about using a palette knife - I'll have to try that next time.