As Darkness Falls

I painted this trio of images at the end of July, on a day I was feeling a little low.
Until now, I didn't post them, because I couldn't think of a title.
But here they are - again, towards goal #55 (to make 52 paintings in a year) - with the collective title of As Darkness Falls.

As Darkness Falls #1, July 2014

As Darkness Falls #2, July 2014

As Darkness Falls #3, July 2014

 As with the other paintings I've posted here so far, these were done using watercolours.

Regarding the title, the short answer is that it came to me and I liked it.
The long answer is that the title seemed to 'fit' the mood I was going for with these images. Whilst none of them are particularly dark (especially #1), I wanted to show the fading light that comes at the end of the day, and the fluctuation of colours in the sky after the sun sinks below the horizon. It's easy to draw the parallel between this and depressive moods--the first moments after sunset being the first hints of apathy, introversion, unwillingness to move (#1), then as the sky (mood) grows darker, the feeling becomes one of being more crowded (#2) until finally there is a feeling of being completely hemmed in by a vast, ominous obstacle, despite knowing there is still some light beyond that darkness (#3). The light may have never gone in the first place, but as the darkness of such a mood descends upon the mind, the light becomes obscured.

This has become quite a depressing post, hasn't it! Despite my ramblings as to what is behind these paintings, I hope you like them!

Techinically they were easy to paint - I created all three in one day, along with Dissolve (which I wrote about in a previous post, You'd Be Forgiven For Thinking This Was An Art Blog). The most difficult part was getting remotely straight lines on the barriers, but I ended up painting carefully along the edge of a scrap of watercolour paper to get the result I was after!

The next time I post a painting, the mood will be far more upbeat, I promise!