Starvanger Norway

I've never been to Norway before, and this painting was done using Google Map for the Virtual Paintout March 2010 challenge. It's oil on 10"x12" canvas board.

It was fun poking around Google Map for something I wanted to paint. There were several possibilities, I chose this one because it's very inviting to the viewer. You almost feel like you want to jump in and join the biker. The road slanted from lower left going up to the right also gives you the inviting feeling. It's got interesting roofs with a boat hiding in between, and I liked the shadows too, although when I had to paint the shadows, getting the right orientation was a bit tricky. I even left a bit of the road at the bottom right hand corner, as reminder there was a Google van there!