May Day
This is the time to sow potatoes to ensure the green parts emerge after any possibility of frost. Potatoes are not native to Europe and were introduced by the Spanish after their adventures in the New World. Sir Walter Raleigh reputably introduced the potato to the British Isles and Ireland in the late 1500’s. Protestant farmers wouldn’t grow them as they were not mentioned in the Bible, Catholic farmers had no problem after they were sprinkled with a drop of Holy Water, of course. Sir Walter presented Queen Elizabeth 1 with a sample of this wonderful new vegetable. Her kitchen staff, unwittingly, discarded the edible potatoes and cooked the greens. Now, potato leaves are poisonous (same family as Nightshade), causing severe cramps and a chronic laxative action. To say she wasn’t amused might be a bit of an understatement. If there was any ‘hanky panky’ going on before this little misunderstanding, there certainly wasn’t any afterwards.
This is another large (for me) painting, measuring 19″x15″. I’m trying to work out a method of producing larger paintings using an ‘alla prima’ method. I can’t paint for a solid 4 hours as some artists do. After 2, I begin to slow down and make mistakes, but worst of all, I begin to overwork. I’ll have to divide the painting into several sessions. But where to stop? After the sky, the underpainting? I’m so used to painting ‘wet on wet’ its difficult to adjust to painting on dry, or semi-dry, paint from a previous session. As part of my research I’m reading ‘The Materials of the Artist (with notes on the techniques of the old masters)’ by Max Doerner. Its interesting to note that the old masters had their apprentices do much of the underpainting ‘which the master then used as a basis for an alla prima technique’. Where do I find apprentices?
Seriously, the possible solution is to under-paint a number of canvases in flat solvent only paint, allowing each to dry, and finishing in ‘alla prima’. I don’t like this, as I move quickly from subject to subject, and this is like backtracking. It might be what I have to do.
Only 4 colours in this painting, Burnt Sienna (red), Yellow Ochre (yellow) and Cobalt Blue (blue), plus Viridian Green (and of course, black and white). The medium was my now standard, Liquin + 5% Stand Linseed Oil plus doubling the volume with White Spirits. The total painting time was over 3 hours in 2 sessions. The first was the sky to the horizon. I’ll have the video in a few days. See you then.
PictureS 
Beautiful. Your clouds are especially gorgeous.
Thank you Elena.
Thank you for visiting my blog. I am glad that you like my “Wish You Were Here” post/artwork, which has lead me here to your blog. Your work is very beautiful.
Thank you Nancy. I liked your post, I’m going through a ‘dot painting’ phase at the moment myself.
So go on, move out of your “comfort zone” and see what happens! You can always go back if it gets too uncomfortable!
You’re right, I’ll have to give it a try.
Beautiful painting and I have to agree with ‘elenacarave’ – your clouds are gorgeous.
I have just recently started painting with water based oil paint. Before that I only used acryllics. I now start a painting with acrylics to get the base on there and when I am to the point to paint detail, I switch over to oil. When reading your piece above it made me think that starting with acrylics can substitute for the apprentices you mentioned 🙂
I admire that you can make a painting in one go. I need about five sessions of 2,5 hours each to complete a painting 🙂
ARToinet
Wow! I would love to be able to paint for 5 hours, that would solve many of my problems. Its the total time of a session that cause me problems. I can manage well enough on small paintings, its the large ones using the same technique. This takes so much time my system doesn’t work for a variety of reasons. I will find a solution – it just takes time, Oh! here I go again.
wow I’m amazed at the wonderful effects you get with such a limited pallette and so quickly!
Thanks Rosie. Limited palette and fast painting, that’s how I make it work. It gets troublesome the larger the painting. I’m trying to ‘scale up’ without loosing the effect. I will find a solution, something for a future post 🙂
This is so beautiful!
Thank you Alona.
Beautifully painted sky.
Hello! thank you for the like on my blog! I wish I was as great at painting landscapes, as you are! amazing!
Thank you for the comment, and I wish I was as good as you at painting figures 🙂
I’m not into painting scenery myself, but you really got the talent for it, plus your write-ups are interesting. Good luck in figuring out your new techniques! I just moved to a different country and my paint now works different (it’s basically dry the next the day) so I’m also adjusting.
You must have moved to a warmer climate, lucky you.
Very nice painting! It reminds me famous Czech painters like Schikaneder, Kosárek or Mařák.
Thank you. I’m not familiar with these artists but I will look them up.