“Night Glow, Astoria”. 8” x 7”. Oil on panel. 
 
I have a folder of reference photos with about 1,000 images in it. Another folder has 400 of the 1,000. Another has 100 of the 400, and so on. And at last there is folder with the next dozen or so images I want to paint. I like doing it that way, but every once in a while, I abandon that system and just instinctively paint an image that strikes me. This one struck me. 
 
I was taken by the different colors in the light auras and the abstract feel of the the lit structures. We can only identify a railing, a building, some windows, a light pole, and that’s about it. But reads pretty realistically somehow.