The Bedroom Challenge

A dreary weather day like today is a good time to paint an interior. Van Gogh, Bonnard, Howard Morgan, and many other artists painted their bedrooms and this is a challenge for you to follow in their footsteps. Choosing an interesting viewpoint is your first step. In this painting of a bedroom in Tuscany where I taught a workshop, the viewpoint is actually from laying on the bed. I wanted to show how the room looked when someone was waking up in the morning with sunlight coming in through the window. The room was bathed in a warm glow and I used the earth tones of yellow ochre, burnt sienna, raw sienna, and raw umber along with cobalt violet on the walls and floor. The different cool values of emerald green on the upholstery provided a nice counter charge to the warm earth tones. Cropping can often make a more interesting composition and, as you can see, I cropped the walls, floor, bed, dresser, and the paintings. This put a little more emphasis on the chairs and the window. Overlapping the chairs with the bed posts and the corner of the window with the dresser gave more depth to the composition. Looking at this painting brings back memories of a happy time spent in Tuscany with friends so my challenge to you is paint an interior and study some paintings of bedrooms to see if they evoke any emotions. Happy Painting! Dennis Pendleton