Taking Flight

This summer will probably be recorded as one of the wettest ever. At least the ducks are happy. The painting is approx 18″ x 10″, actually the canvas was an off-cut of which I have many. I find it difficult to find a subject to fit these narrow shapes. Panoramic views on such a small piece of canvas tend to have a cramped feeling and with a foreground occupying the usual one third of the area this leaves no scope for a substantial sky. The weather might not be the usual holiday type but the stormy skies are spectacular.

In this composition I truncated the foreground to make space for the sky but having enough interest to draw the viewer into the scene. I’m not a wildlife artist and painting the ducks ‘wet on wet’ was a bit stressful as there was no room for error. I was trying to keep the painting of the ducks as free as the rest of the painting and this is difficult as the shapes are quite precise. I was conscious of the problem of overworking these shapes and the lack of movement which might result from this.

The colours used are Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ochre and Cobalt Blue. Raw Umber was also used. So as usual its a limited palette with the resultant harmony over the entire surface of the painting. As usual I recorded the painting process which I will post in a few days.