Sonja Sweterlitsch: Cloudscape (Lake Erie Sunset)

Sweterlitsch's series, Pennsylvania Sunsets, was a departure creatively as her past artwork focused solely on realistic portraits of women. Sweterlitsch found it quite freeing and fun to loosen up for this nature series. Inspired by artists John Singer Sargent, Cecilia Beaux, Thomas Eakins, and Elizabeth Peyton, Sweterlitsch uses Windsor Newton oil paints and a Walnut oil medium on gesso-treated canvases. She begins each painting with a photo shoot of her subject, before drawing the image and creating an underpainting in burnt sienna, burnt umber, and titanium white. Then she layers in her colors, going from dark to light, working up from general shapes to greater detail.