I finished the brickwork and have started blocking in the base colors for the wood work.  Once the building colors are all blocked in I’ll start the detail and shadow work.  The last step will be the repeating pattern on the color band and this one will be wrapped up.

Last year I had started a painting based on the Sunset Heights area of El Paso, focusing on the Sunset Grocery:

While working on it, I had to put it aside to work on getting our bathroom/bedroom project finished.  I stored it in my garage and subsequently the canvas got damaged.  I wasn’t very far along so it wasn’t a huge loss but I didn’t want to start from scratch on a new one using the same image.  I tweaked the idea some and set out to have another go at it:

The Sunset Grocery building has been photographed, drawn and painted by many others so its familiarity makes it difficult to come up with a fresh take on it  I think this layout is unique and will make for a stronger image than my first attempt.  We shall see…

Cadmium Yellow takes eons to dry, its like a watching snails race in tar.  Yes, I could add cobalt dryer but long term that can lead to cracking so I try not to do that.