"Relish & More", 12x16, plein air, nocturne, Lighthouse Plein Air Festival, restaurants, Cafe Centro, Ray Chang, Relish & More, Old Northwood Historic District, Palm Beach, piano bar, MAryanne JAcobsen art

"Relish & More", 12x16, plein air nocturne

This painting was the most fun to do during the Lighthouse Plein Air Festival a couple weeks ago. I am behind in posting my paintings from the event, because I came home sick, but this one I really wanted to post because of all the fun involved in the creation. The restaurant is located in Old Northwood Village, near Palm Beach. Old Northwood Historic area is a lovely neighborhood of classic Mediterranean and Mission style architecture made popular by distinguished architects in the 1920's.

The restaurants and shops in this neighborhood are both artsy and eclectic, and I chose to paint here twice, because I was so enamored with the colorful buildings and fabulous architecture. On the second night of the plein air festival, I came here in the evening to paint a nocturne, and chose this spot because it was well lit and I loved all the lights twinkling at Relish & More.

My hubby and I had had a delicious Italian meal that night at Cafe Centro, which is directly across the street from Relish and More, so I felt comfortable setting up there on the corner where Cafe Centro is located.

As it turns out, it was a Thursday night, and Ray Chang's piano bar was on hand to provide me wonderful entertainment as I painted! The music varied in style, but there was not one single song he did that I didn't thoroughly enjoy! As it was, I found myself bobbing up and down to the music as I painted, totally immersed in the joy of the moment and dancing with my paintbrush. (Hey, the blog isn't called PaintDance for nothing!) By the end of the evening, a congo line had formed and people much dancing in the streets to some contemporary stuff with a killer beat. Such fun!

I have only done a handful of nocturnes in my life and am rather inexperienced at the skill required to paint in the dark, but this will go down in memory as of of the most enjoyable paintings that I ever did, thanks to Ray Chang! I so wish we lived closer so I could go back every Thursday night!

Here is a photo of my set-up on the corner:

The thing that makes nocturnes so difficult, is that the light is so distorted that it's hard to judge values on your palette, or even see your canvas very well, what with the glare from the headlamp that you need to use in order to paint. It wasn't my best painting of the week, but it certainly was memorable.

Thanks so much Ray Chang and Cafe Centro for the great meal and music. To get a little taste of what it was like to hear Ray sing, here's a link to a couple videos from the CAfe Centro website or Ray entertaining the crowd. Enjoy!