Highway Cathedral I (9 x 11) $50

I doubt it’s original of me, but I’ve always loved the shapes of bridges from below. From above the bridge connecting connecting Salem and West Salem is a dull and even ugly highway from which you can see only tantalizing glimpses of the Willamette River below. But from underneath it’s all about arches, windows, and water.

To get the feel of the concrete, I used mostly naturally granulating pigments: cerulean blue, French ultra marine blue, burnt sienna, and yellow ochre. The only pigments without natural granulation I used were cobalt blue and phthalo blue which I used to the darken the shadows on the underside of the highway.

For the foreground I mixed burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue with granulation medium to accentuate the textural effect. Next time I may add ox gall to the water pigments to smooth them out for contrast.

This was a fun little painting. I’ll do a few more under the bridge paintings over the next few weeks.