Red Sunset
Red Sunset
What a way to end a gray day.
I was lucky to catch this. I live just far enough down an east-facing hill that I can’t see any sunsets, and can only guess from what little bit I see nearly directly overhead. When I see the sky with a bit of color, I know there’s even more on the western horizon and run to the top of the hill. Usually, when I do this, I get there just in time.
And after all the years I’ve been catching sunsets from this vantage, I’ve finally made my peace with the tree. In fact, I think its lacy character adds to the composition.
No sunsets are as brilliant as a late autumn or winter sunset. It almost makes up for sunset at 4:50 p.m.
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
“Winter Sunset Reflections”
“Winter Sunset Reflection”, 7″ x 17″, pastel on black paper © Bernadette E. Kazmarski
It’s not winter yet but the trees are bare and today’s afternoon and evening sky were completely free of clouds. Just after the sun dropped below the horizon that pure blue of twilight smoothed the sky but for the glow above the horizon. I knew it was coming and hurried to my favorite place to watch the sunset, on a hill with a long view of the landscape, then traveled down to the valley to the Panhandle Trail to see this sight once again.
I painted this scene for my August exhibit “Sun Shadow Ice & Snow: Seasons of the Panhandle Trail” during Rock the Quarry, the annual fundraiser for the Panhandle Trail.
I decided to do this painting at pretty much the last minute, though I’d been visualizing it for years. The scene is one I’ve often seen along the trail on a winter evening. This painting was done from a photo I’d taken one of those winter evenings on the trail, a clear, cold day with a cloudless sky at sunset, the sky reflected on Robinson Run. The velvety darkness of the land contrasts so completely with the brilliance of the sky and its reflection on the water and, simple as it is, it’s always been one of my favorite images.
I used black Canson charcoal/pastel paper and only painted the areas of light and finally achieved what I’d been visualizing.
PURCHASE THIS PAINTING, AND SEE MORE ART
This painting is available for sale, framed, in my Etsy shop, along with prints.
You can see other paintings from this exhibit here.
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If you are interested in purchasing this painting or any other originals I have posted here on Today, please contact me. I will also have prints of this painting after the exhibit.
My Booth Friday Night
My exhibit Friday night.
Last night was a lovely night–a little warm and humid but well attended, lots of visitors, the rain held off until after we left and I’ve sold a few things already! I had wanted to share this photo on social media last night but simply could not get enough of a signal so I’m posting it here. Hopefully I’ll be able to share today–after a foggy, soggy morning has turned into blue skies with pretty puffy clouds.
Looking forward to a great day during Rock the Quarry in my exhibit “Sun Shadow Ice & Snow: Seasons of the Panhandle Trail”. Take a look at other paintings from this exhibit.
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If you are interested in purchasing this painting or any other originals I have posted here on Today, please contact me. I will also have prints of this painting after the exhibit.
New Painting: “Winter Sunset Reflections”
“Winter Sunset Reflection”, 7″ x 17″, pastel on black paper © Bernadette E. Kazmarski
I decided to do this painting at pretty much the last minute, though I’d been visualizing it for a long time. The scene is one I’ve often seen along the trail on a winter evening. This painting was done from a photo I’d taken one of those winter evenings on the trail, a clear, cold day with a cloudless sky at sunset, the sky reflected on Robinson Run. The velvety darkness of the land contrasts so completely with the brilliance of the sky and its reflection on the water and, simple as it is, it’s always been one of my favorite images
I used black Canson charcoal/pastel paper and only painted the areas of light and finally achieved what I’d been visualizing.
You can see it along with others this Friday and Saturday during Rock the Quarry in my exhibit “Sun Shadow Ice & Snow: Seasons of the Panhandle Trail”. Also take a look at other paintings from this exhibit.
. . . . . . .
If you are interested in purchasing this painting or any other originals I have posted here on Today, please contact me. I will also have prints of this painting after the exhibit.
A Winter Sunset
Winter Sunset
Soft colorful sky
soaring, trees black rough earth
bound; winter sunset.
poem © 2013 Bernadette E. Kazmarski
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For a print of any photo, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms. For photos of lots of black cats and other cats—and even some birds as I first published this post there—visit The Creative Cat.
Rich Winter Sunset
Rich Winter Sunset
The light was fleeting but breathtaking, the little lights of streets and houses set in the velvet of valley in darkness, the tree branches, buds already swelling, silhouetted in deep indigo against the scarlet of the end of day.
I saw it happening as I sat at my desk and ran to the top of the hill, almost too late.
The Last Day of the Year
The last day of the year goes out blazing.
I always have to close the year with my absolute favorite sunset photo, from December 31, 2004, taken from the top of my street.
The Last Day of the Year
The last day of the year goes out blazing.
I always have to close the year with my absolute favorite sunset photo, from December 31, 2004, taken from the top of my street.
Nightfall
Sunset With Twisted Trees
At this time of year, when an overcast afternoon can make the 5:00 sunset seem to happen at 4:00, I’ll take whatever sun I can get. But I also appreciate how the overcast often dramatically breaks just at the end of the day, as if to give us a gift of rambling sunlight, swirling clouds and changing colors we might not otherwise appreciate on a bright sunny day. The lacy bare trees of early winter etch a chiaroscuro on the light show.
Remember This in August
Cold Water
Not quite frozen though the temperature was minus 1 degree when I walked to the post office and bank first thing this morning. Chartiers Creek was rimmed with ice and frozen over in the shallower areas, all was still and quiet except the slowly flowing water; even the hardy ducks were keeping in their nests until later. Bright, clear and sunny, but sometimes those mornings are the coldest.
When I make this walk this coming summer I’ll remember this frozen morning.
Coming Snowstorm
Snow on the Way
It’s been increasingly overcast all day as this next storm heads our way. Here it’s nowhere near sunset, though the atmosphere seems very dark but the sky is still yellow and golden as the sun struggles to illumine the landscape. It looks like a sandstorm except for the trees, or perhaps the days when the mills were in such high production that the sun shone through murky smog; the ground is snow covered but the sun isn’t emitting enough light to reflect.
The Last Day of the Year
The Last Day of the Year
This photo isn’t actually from yesterday, December 31, 2010, but it is from the last day of 2004 and it’s one of my favorite winter sunset photos. Today was rainy and after the snow looked dreary in the way only a short, wet, winter day can so I thought I’d post this photo to share it.
I’ve also made it the header image for a while.
Coming to a Close
Winter Mood
As the winter solstice approaches the quickening days of late autumn bring earlier sunsets, sometimes much earlier than we are prepared to accept. Bare trees allow the sun to illumine familiar sights that have been draped in cool shade and fluttering leaves all summer. The lower winter angle of the sun casts dramatic shadows, especially at sunset. The whole effect can change a world we take for granted into a place that looks familiar but is somehow strange.
And sometimes the place just has an “otherness” about it. This is Old St. Luke’s Church in Scott Township, established as a stockade church in 1765 but serving as a lookout point for centuries before that for tribes of Native Americans who paddled the “Catfish Path”, now Chartiers Creek, after hunting on the verdant hills. The overlook stands above a bend in Chartiers Creek and overlooks a flood plain valley, and even prior to European settlers’ Christian homage, the site seems to have had a spiritual essence. No doubt the very soil remembers many feet, many words, many prayers.
The church yard holds the graves of settlers from the Revolutionary period, and a scattering of others from later years. The building was rebuilt at least twice and served as a church and burial ground from 1765 until about 50 years ago when it closed and fell into disrepair. While I was growing up we were all sure it was haunted and that Revolutionary War soldiers’ bodies littered the pews inside. About ten years ago a group of interested people found funding to re-open it, preserving a part of it as a museum, conserving the church yard and offering tours and services.
Today was dark with heavy, lowering skies from the first light, but nearing sunset the clouds parted and drifted away toward the east, leaving the sun to set in a varied sky, etching the old oak tree against the brilliant display. Still, as welcome as the sunlight was after a short dark day it looks somehow ominous, and I remembered the long history of the site as I stopped to take the photo.
Visit the website for Old St. Luke’s at www.oldsaintlukes.org.
Today 