Original 11 x 14 Oil on panel
Signed Certificate of Authenticity
Ready to hang
Painted September 2023
I painted Moon Tunes, La Crosse, Wisconsin outdoors during a Moon Tunes concert in Riverside Park. Moon Tunes is a free summer concert series in La Crosse, and this one turned into a family night for us. They sat and enjoyed the music. I stood there with an easel and painted.
There wasn’t one particular thing in the scene that pulled me in. This painting was really about the practice of painting outdoors with a lot going on at once. A packed crowd, lawn chairs, coolers, trees, the bandshell, people moving around — all of it changing while I was trying to get paint down.
Visually, the painting is busy because the evening was busy. The big tree anchors the left side, while the curved bandshell cuts across the middle and the crowd fills almost the entire foreground. I used a lot of blue and teal through the shadows, then bounced warmer reds, oranges and yellows around the stage, chairs and people. The brushwork stayed loose because there wasn’t exactly time to start counting lawn chairs.
Honestly, painting there felt surprisingly normal. Lots of people stopped to watch, the family was nearby, and there was plenty of 1960s, 70s and 80s music in the background — even some Jimi Hendrix. Pretty much a studio session, except the studio had several hundred people in it.
Want a print instead? You can find prints of this piece here: Moon Tunes, La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Original 11 x 14 Oil on panel
Signed Certificate of Authenticity
Ready to hang
Painted September 2023
I painted Moon Tunes, La Crosse, Wisconsin outdoors during a Moon Tunes concert in Riverside Park. Moon Tunes is a free summer concert series in La Crosse, and this one turned into a family night for us. They sat and enjoyed the music. I stood there with an easel and painted.
There wasn’t one particular thing in the scene that pulled me in. This painting was really about the practice of painting outdoors with a lot going on at once. A packed crowd, lawn chairs, coolers, trees, the bandshell, people moving around — all of it changing while I was trying to get paint down.
Visually, the painting is busy because the evening was busy. The big tree anchors the left side, while the curved bandshell cuts across the middle and the crowd fills almost the entire foreground. I used a lot of blue and teal through the shadows, then bounced warmer reds, oranges and yellows around the stage, chairs and people. The brushwork stayed loose because there wasn’t exactly time to start counting lawn chairs.
Honestly, painting there felt surprisingly normal. Lots of people stopped to watch, the family was nearby, and there was plenty of 1960s, 70s and 80s music in the background — even some Jimi Hendrix. Pretty much a studio session, except the studio had several hundred people in it.
Want a print instead? You can find prints of this piece here: Moon Tunes, La Crosse, Wisconsin.