Art Day—Coffee Shop Edition

One day last week, I was having a quiet lunch at a coffee shop in the next town over—not to abandon the usual place, but this was close to my English class, and I had just an hour between sessions. It's one of those funky places with intentionally mis-matched furniture pulled from who knows where—odd chairs paired with odd tables, mostly formica-stainless furniture from the 50s. In fact, one table is positioned inside a scene straight from I Love Lucy with the old metal cabinets and sink with vintage canisters and appliances.

Anyway, my table was one of those old ones in the window. The top was yellow, and the walls beside it were bright red, and I was impressed with how the colors reflected on the stainless table legs. I happened to have my camera with me, so I took this shot along with several others:

I went home and sketched it out with pencil and paper to see if it was something I could recreate with the proper shadows. Hmm, maybe:

With the photo and sketch in front of me, I drew a similar scene on the last of my acrylic canvas, rummaged through my old stash of acrylic paint and came up with this. As with most of my paintings, I think this is better when viewed from a distance, and I would never frame it. But I like it in general, and I think it serves as a good exercise for shadows:

Here are a few images I shot at the coffee shop that day.