After sunset. Lutry Port. 30.05.2025. 12x19.5 cm

After Sunset. Lutry Port. 30.05.2025

This original plein-air oil painting was created in Lutry Port, Switzerland, after sunset on the shores of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) in May 2025. Painted directly outdoors, the work captures the final transformation of light as evening settles across the lake and the surrounding landscape begins to dissolve into atmosphere.

The composition is remarkably restrained. The shoreline, distant trees and mountains are reduced to quiet horizontal bands suspended between water and sky. Rather than describing the landscape in detail, the painting focuses on tonal relationships and the subtle shifts of colour that appear after the sun has disappeared below the horizon.

Soft blue, lavender, pale grey and silvery tones dominate the surface, creating a sense of stillness and distance. The mountains emerge only gradually through layers of atmosphere, while the lake reflects the fading light in broad horizontal passages. The landscape feels suspended between visibility and disappearance, as if the forms are slowly dissolving into evening air.

The title After Sunset refers to a moment often overlooked. The most intense colours of sunset have already vanished, yet the atmosphere continues to glow quietly with residual light. During this transition, Lac Léman frequently becomes a field of subtle tonal variations where water, sky and distant mountains seem almost indistinguishable. The painting preserves this fragile interval between day and night.

Lutry, situated within the Lavaux UNESCO World Heritage landscape, is known for the extraordinary relationship between lake, atmosphere and distant Alpine horizons. In the evening, reflections and atmospheric perspective often become more important than physical detail, transforming familiar views into nearly abstract experiences of colour and space. (montreuxriviera.com, whc.unesco.org)

The painting is built through calm, deliberate brushwork. Thick yet controlled layers of oil paint create a surface that feels both luminous and quiet. The simplified forms allow attention to move toward atmosphere itself, where colour becomes the true subject of the work.

Created during a single plein-air painting session, this painting records a fleeting encounter with the last remaining light above Lac Léman. The silence of the lake, the fading contours of the mountains and the delicate colour of the evening air became the essential elements of the composition.

This work belongs to my ongoing series dedicated to Lutry, Lavaux and the changing atmospheres of Lake Geneva. Each painting records a direct experience of light, season and place observed outdoors in nature.

Original plein-air oil painting by Olga Tacan.

Location: Lutry Port, Vaud, Switzerland

Subject: Evening atmosphere after sunset on Lac Léman (Lake Geneva)

Region: Lavaux UNESCO World Heritage landscape

Medium: Oil painting

Date painted: 30 May 2025

Oil on paper

Plain air painting

Size 12 x 19.5cm

Size with passé-partout  22x27cm 

Date: 30 May 2025

Location: Lutry, Switzerland