I’m happy to announce that my painting, Caretaker, received a Gallery Arts Award at the 2025 Edmonds Arts Festival. At the awards ceremony on June 9, juror Amanda Houston said the following about Caretaker.
Mitchell’s use of simplicity creates a calm mood. He shows restraint in the use of any dark values and turns to higher key colors. Subtle temperature shifts in the background sky also adds another layer of color sensitivity to this simple subject. He also breaks the rules of design by placing the house directly in the center, yet with cleverly offset shadows, simultaneoulsy creates balance and asymmetry.
Caretaker, oil on canvas, 24 x 20″
Sitting beside the Point Wilson Lighthouse at Fort Worden in Port Townsend, Wash. is an historic 1879 keeper’s house. This was this inpiration for Caretaker.
The “Caretaker” Story
The sun was low in the sky and the light was hitting the face of the house directly. The painting was my attempt at conveying the brilliance of that light.
As compared to the painting, the source photo has much darker values and stronger contrasts. The face of the house is almost pure white, the windows are nearly black, and the roof is very dark. In the painting, every one of those values is made lighter. In much of my work, I rely less on strong value contrasts and more on color interactions to create the sensation of light. The face of the house has a distinctive warm cast, while much of the surroundings sky is a cooler blue. This sets up a strong temperature differential. The foreground grasses are lighter overall and hold much more warmth. The shadow on the on right side of the house is no longer pure gray, but a radiant blue-violet, which complements the yellow. Even the windows are much lighter in value, picking up some of the luminous blue-violet seen in the shadows.
“Caretaker” Studies
I did several color studies for “Caretaker” before beginning. My goal: to see which color scheme might best convey the lighting effect I was after. For more on color studies, see Getting the Light Right: The Power of the Color Study.
