Thinking on the Bus

This is my second submission for July 2011 Virtual Paintout challenge, Channel Islands - Jersey, UK. It's oil on 11x14 canvas panel.

Since the first painting I did for the challenge this month I didn't have to travel virtually too much, I decided to do a little bit of virtual traveling in Google Map to check out the island. This bus scene (ref photo) caught my eyes since I could immediately identify with the lady in pink, who was looking out the bus windows, oblivious to people getting on the bus or other riders. It reminded me of when I was commuting from New Jersey into Manhattan, riding on buses into Port Authority, and looking out the window thinking or day dreaming. This scene is also kind of Hopper-ish : very little interactions among the people in the painting. You wonder what the lady in pink is thinking about, is she lonely, troubled, or just day dreaming.

To start the painting , I prepared the canvas panel with an acrylic ground of black. There are a variety of colors I used here, such as yellow orchre, burnt sienna, burnt umber, van dyke brown, sap green, cobalt blue (left over on my palette from previous paintings), white, cadmium yellow, cadmium red, cadmium orange, coral, Paynes grey, ultramarine violet and white. I even changed one of the bus rider to look like myself in there (the one with pony tail on right), although I kept skin tone darker not to be too noticeable. Now the painting is done, I need to pack up my gears for all the driving and flying I will be doing over the next week.