Le restaurant

As I mentioned sometime last month, I hosted the Different Strokes challenge in the Acrylics forum of WetCanvas for the month of Feb. This was one of the references I provided. This image is from the little French town of Colmar, taken when we visited this place in the Spring of 2008. It is a very charming little town in the Alsace wine growing region of France. I loved this arch and the lighting, the tables set up nicely, and the atmosphere. It has been on my to-paint list for longer than I can remember and I decided this was the best chance. I wasn't quite sure if everyone would be inspired by this subject, so I gave another street cafe scene as yet another option. Most of the people painted the arch however, to my pleasant surprise.

Le Restaurant
Acrylics on Canvas, 12 x 16 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan

I tried playing around with some structure paste for the outer walls of the building. On top of the paste, I used the palette knife to color the walls. I wanted a lot of texture to the walls, to make them stand out and to draw the viewer into the scene. The inside was painted with the brush. I could've done a better job with the overall lighting is what I think. I might tweak it a bit, adding a few highlights and some more darks. Let's see.

I also hope that this paintings motivates me to get started on Europe cityscapes. With tons of references from all over Europe, every time I think of starting a series, I get distracted with something more interesting. Meanwhile, your feedback is welcome on this one!