This is just lovely! I especially love the soft blue of the sky and how it contrasts with the red-orange roofs.

If my dad sees this he'll probably go to any and all efforts to buy it from you x) He loves lighthouses.

@ FishBiscuit--I like how the sky turned out as well. You know I had to do this "X" technique and it made this chaotic look and then she gave me this brush--this brush looks like the ones girls use to put blush on and she showed me how to twirl it gently over and over again. As I passed the brush caressingly over the paint the chaos disappeared and what was left was this most interesting, satisfying calming blue sky that reminded me of ones I had seen laying on the grass and gazing heavenward so many times. I have wondered all week since I made this painting how the sky I has seen so many times got to the canvass I was playing on. It was almost mystical and when I finished the sky I let out a deep sigh of contentment. soooo i definitely will be painting more oils.

You mean the pre-dawn time, where the light is just so soft for a few short minutes and it seems like everything is peaceful? I hadn't noticed the fog/mist at the bottom; my computer isn't too good, so I took it as an irregular fade out from the picture, but it being fog does make it seem more deam-like. Was this a still life piece or was it a scene you thought of yourself?

Either way. It happens more at predawn. Evening you have to have the mist to get that soft hazy effect. Yeah, it is one of the few times the world seems peaceful--just for a few moments. Sometimes when I look at the picture I think of fog but sometimes I think of a fade out. I like gray fog so it is more likely I want that--because I like how it makes the world slow down. Anyway I had a mentor teacher--started taking classes from the Art League here. I do freehand but for her lessons she has you do a basic tracing, then it is different for everyone she talks to you individually about the color palette for this and other house are white but mine she wanted to do a palette with aquamarine which is the base color of the Light house. She talked a bit than just turned me loose on it. I knew bits and pieces about technique, but for some reason in this painting it came all together at once which was quite delightful. So what she mainly taught me was the finer points--how to caress the canvas with a feather brush to create details, how to round a line to make something look 3d, double loading a brush.

I really like the perspective you used for this; how the lighthouse seems to be resting at the top of a steep hill. I feel like I want to run up the path to the top of the hill, because I know I'd see the ocean from there. And the lighthouse has such a proud yet peaceful presence...it's really lovely and calming to look at.