Sketch: Main Street Sunday

pastel painting of main street in carnegie
“Main Street Sunday”, pastel on sanded paper, 9″ x 12″ © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

This is one more sketch from my art and photo extravaganza Sunday a week ago, and this is what happens when you try to do six sketches in one day—they are finished at a later time.

This sketch I had not had the chance to begin that day, only took photos with intention. It was near noon and I’d already been out in the sun for about two hours, and the only place to stand to get this sketch was in direct sun. I don’t mind the sun, but I knew that would have been too much.

As I always do when I photograph people where they might be recognizable, I went to the nice young couple with the baby sitting at the table by Papa J’s and told them I was only photographing for reference for a painting I’d like to do but I would likely never use the photograph unless I had a release since they were recognizable. That was fine with them. I took several photos and packed things up on my bike to continue on my journey to a shadier spot for mid-day.

So I began this sketch entirely from a photo, and sometimes that’s okay, but there’s a lot going on here and something just didn’t feel authentic with the sketch I’d finished a day or two after. I had to let it sit…and sit…and sit until I decided I just had to find the time around noon on a sunny day to go back to that spot and look at it again, and work on the painting for a bit if I could. Then I had to wait several rainy days for a sunny day. And so today I did. It seems I needed deeper shadows and sharper highlights. If I’d been able to I would have removed the two cars, but that wasn’t possible so I toned them down. The street’s a little out of proportion…oh, well.

So here we are, Main Street in Carnegie on a Sunday in June, just about noon! It was June 9, to be exact.

(If you see a couple of stripes about 1/3 of the way from each edge, that’s my scanner, still unhappy and not getting any better. I really have to look for a new one.)

Main Street is a frequent subject of mine:

West Main Street August Afternoon

Memorial Day Parade: A Pencil Sketch

Evening Lights: Painting

And an exhibit entitled “My Home Town”

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