A Sunset Painting In Egg Tempera

I completed the latest egg tempera painting today: it's called "Sunset In The French Alps".


This painting is 8.5 x 24 inches and it's based on a reference photo taken by my best friend while she was visiting with us here in France. There's a bit of a fun story behind the reference photo. We had gone to Annecy for the day and had eaten our customary special banana and chocolate crepe there of course.

We were returning by car to the Geneva valley when we saw a fantastic sunset to our left. Looking across the meadows, it looks almost like you'd expect of a desert scene. But what was rather funny was that my best friend was sitting in the front seat taking pot shots out of the windows, pointing the camera here and there. I declared that the sunset was a must catch. We all agreed.

It was clear from her comments that things were not going well at all on the photo-taking front. The car was moving, the light was changing and so far no appropriate photo had been captured. And so we started making frantic, all too enthusiastic suggestions about where to point the camera and how - well, isn't this the kind of treatment best friends expect?

We had a great time, with all the commotion in the car over this photo session. And the result was a fantastic series of photographs, one of which inspired this painting, which reminds me of the generosity and loveliness of my best friend.