Daniel Remmel
Florida, USA, The Might Arms of Atlas, acrylic, 30 x 40" Third Prize is a one-page editorial feature in American Art Collector magazine
My Inspiration
While on an early autumn trip to the Dolomites in northern Italy, I bought a two-day gondola pass, allowing me to take cable cars and ski lifts to the top of several mountains surrounding the town of Orteisi. Here I would sketch and photograph the surrounding landscape. The photo used as reference for this painting was taken in the late afternoon of a mostly rainy day. The lighting effect seen here only lasted a few seconds, so I was lucky to capture it. The title is derived from a Led Zeppelin song with the lyrics “The mighty arms of Atlas hold the heavens from the Earth.”
My Design Strategy
This painting is all about the drama created by the shifting light on the clouds and landscape. I thought that the large shadow in the foreground was necessary to balance the composition and give the vast space some room to breathe. The dark areas all serve to add more punch to the bright, sunlit areas. I was taught various compositional “rules” when I was young, but these days I trust my own intuition and paint what feels right to me. While
I paint some subjects photorealistically, with landscape I like to take license with shape and light while sometimes heightening color as well.
My Working Process
I prime my canvas with gesso followed by two coats of medium grey paint, sanding between coats. My palette consists of three primary colors plus white. I sketched in the major shapes with vine charcoal and immediately painted the white sky seen behind the mountains. Next is the generally green, sunlit area of the valley floor. This gives me a very simplified version of what you see in the end. From there it was just a matter of subdividing shapes and painting many layers of color while making corrections as I go. The clouds alone were painted four times making minor corrections to shape and value with each pass.
Contact Details
Email: danremmel@gmail.com
Website: www.danremmelartist.com