Bluebell Grove

This is another small painting, about 9″x12″. Its that time of the year again when the Bluebells carpet the woods. I painted ‘Bluebell Wood’ this time last year and you can see it here. This time the colours are a little different and also the method of painting. There is a definite ‘dot painter’ look to this painting. I like dot paintings and now appreciate the amount of work involved in the painting process (see this site for some great dot paintings).

I’m still experimenting with dark shadows and Liquin. The end result of this experiment is this. If I need dark shadows in a painting to stay ‘wet’ for a few hours while I finish the painting, I will add about 5% ‘Stand’ Linseed Oil to Liquin and then double the volume with White Spirits (‘Stand’ Linseed is better than standard Linseed which I’ve been using in recent experiments). If you are not familiar with recent posts concerning Liquin, here’s the story. Liquin begins to dry within a few hours of application. The tones of dark colours begin to lighten as a result, so its difficult to gauge final colours when the shadows are changing colour. The small amount of oil in the Liquin is enough to keep the ‘wet paint’ look without affecting the great handling which Liquin offers.

The colours are a little different this time, but still only 4 used, Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Yellow, Prussian Blue and Viridian Green (plus, of course black and white). I used old round bristle brushes to create the dot effect (this action ‘breaks’ the bristles in the brush and I didn’t want to destroy my new brushes).

I videoed the process and will have it for next post.