Gareth Naylor

Atmospheric paintings of Japan

Watercolor painting of the last sunlight of the day

Painting the last glow of the day

Watercolor painting of the last sunlight of the day
“The last glow of the day”

A few weeks ago, I suddenly found myself with some free time.

It was late afternoon and cold.

So I jumped on my bike with my watercolor gear and started roaming the streets looking for a scene to paint.

At this time of the day, I’m looking for long dramatic shadows cast by the tall apartment buildings.

Sadly, I had left it too late as the sun was so low in the sky that the whole ground was in shade.

And then I saw a building, just the one, glowing like a warm orange candle in the last light of the day.

It captured my interest but then the doubts crept in. I’d never painted anything like this before. I wondered if I could do a good painting. And then I wondered if it would be too uncomfortable as I would be painting in the shade and it was very cold.

The doubts won. I cycled on looking for a more open space area where it might be warmer and there might still be some dramatic shadows on the ground.

Yet after a short while of searching and finding nothing and feeling time slipping away very quickly I returned to the original spot that had caught my interest.

I had perhaps 15 minutes to paint it before that final glow of the sun was gone.

Quickly, I started painting. It was intense. I finished the painting in the dark. And to my surprise I loved the result.

Gareth.

Postscript

I originally wrote this story in April of 2015, I am editing it in June of 2022. 

The original title of this story was “Seizing the last light of the day” but I changed this to “Painting the last glow of the day”. 

I am still happy with this painting because it was a totally new thing I did but I would like to paint it again at some point and do a better job of it. 

Although, that said, I do think this painting captures very well the atmosphere of that moment and that can be something very difficult to reproduce so this thought makes me hesitant to paint it again.