Rencontre à Minuit

In this painting I wanted to capture the atmosphere of an evening out, casually coming across friends in the lit alleyways that filter off from the busy Rue St Remy in Bordeaux, a street in the city centre full of restaurants. It’s always a buzz with people here, some choosing where to eat and others just ambling about, taking in the ambiance. I was attracted by the wonderful reflections brought about by an earlier rain shower, whose passing still lies in the puddles and on the wet cobbles of the street.

My formative years working as a theatre lighting designer has had an everlasting influence on my subject choices and particularly when I happen to come across images such as this one; great lighting within a natural theatre setting, where everyone becomes an actor and we feel caught up in a story, just waiting to see how it will develop and letting our imagination decide what will happen next.

Artist’s note:
The warm evening glow in this painting allowed me to experiment with different variations of yellows and ochres that could contrast with the deep blues in the night sky. I used a mixture of brush and palette knife for this work to create glazes and textures in, adding to both the luminosity and the strong architectural definitions in the finished piece.