Waverly Diner

Oil on linen, 42″ x 36″, 2014

This is the Waverly Diner (aka Waverly Restaurant) in the Village, in New York. It was a favorite dining spot of mine when I lived in the neighborhood. I was interested in the effects of light, color, space, and compositional reduction, and I wanted to recreate the bright and intense colors you find in a nocturnal setting in the city.

The primary source of light is the street lamp, which casts a yellow glow on the sidewalk, and thus a purplish shadow from the central figures. The light from the diner’s signage also lights up the male figure looking at his cell phone and highlights the brick work on the façade. The light is also seen through the figure’s blue dress, and the figure’s clothing on the right is reduced to silhouette.

There is a pattern of blue following the sky down the roofs of the Jefferson Market Library in the background to the awning in the middle ground, to the woman’s dress in the foreground. Yellow is repeated in the Empire State Building, the clock face, the street lamp, and the sidewalk. Orange is repeated in the entryway of the diner and again in the foreground. This repeated color is to flatten the space between foreground and background.

There is clearly an interior space visible and I brought up the intensity of those colors to balance the yellow and orange in the sidewalk, and space is created between overlapping figures. The figure in the foreground leads you into the composition.

Although it may seem very detailed, I simplified a lot to create a harmonious composition, and I softened the contours to give it a dreamy look.