Silhouettes, Sunsets and Painting

Recently I’ve been looking through some images I had taken in November. I’ve been looking for painting inspiration and perhaps some ideas for drawing. I keep coming back to images I had taken late one afternoon on Medicine Beach, images with beautiful skies, and then the word “sunset” comes to mind.

I seem to have a problem with putting the words “painting” and “sunset” together. Even though there should be nothing wrong with painting a sunset, my mind goes back to a high school band teacher I had who scathingly said to me once “What are you going to do, paint sunsets for the rest of your life?” Up until that point I had no idea that there was a problem with painting sunset pictures. Funnily, I guess Monet and Turner didn’t get the memo from my band teacher either regarding the lowly state of painting sunsets. Who knew that band teachers were the authority to tell you that painting was a waste of time and that essentially sunsets were the lowest of the low for painting subjects?

Its been years since I chucked in the clarinet of High School Band, however that comment still comes back to haunt me. I like the silhouetted lines in these shots and the color is bright and fun, but is painting a sunset twee? Do I waste a canvas and give it a go? Will I hear that comment in my head with every stroke of pink or orange that hits the canvas? But then one also has to ask, really, what is so bad if I did choose to paint sunsets for the rest of my life? It isn’t the worst thing a person can do with their life……….plus all the research is done walking on a beach…….at sunset. Rough.