This is another painting based on photos from trip to New Zealand this past fall (which would be New Zealand’s spring). I was very taken with these small old buildings, out in the middle of the stark but spectacular landscape. Artistically the main challenge for me was to make the buildings seem old (which they are) but not falling apart (which they are not. Lighting was also an issue. It was a cloudy day, with the sun in and out. And while in the reference photo you can see some sun on the distant mountains, there really weren’t shadows i could work with to increase sense of depth. Also, as you can see in the reference photo, there is a brown building between two other buildings. I left this one out because if you look carefully you can see that what looks like the roof of that brown building is really part of the mountains behind. I could have adjusted that part of the picture but decided the danger of confusion for the viewer was still pretty high — so left it out.

Oil on panel, 11” x 14”