Corn Thieves
Winter crops are ready to be harvested now and its like a little bit of Autumn in Summer time. The ‘crow-bangers’ are blasting away, mostly in vain as the crows figure out fairly quickly its only a harmless noise and not the farmers shotgun. The weather has not been good for farmers this year, too much rain so tempers are a little frayed.
I started the painting using Drying Poppy Oil only, diluted 50/50 with White Spirits. As with Linseed Oil the handling is difficult. Paint is inclined to slide on top of the wet under layers with no interaction with the paint already laid down. Liquin seems to be a little ‘tacky’ from the start and subsequent paint applied sticks and if brushed, a certain amount of blending of the colour happens. So before the sky was completed I added some Liquin to the medium. This improved the situation somewhat.
The colours always seem to be richer when oil is used. I think it has more to do with the dark colours staying wet and rich as the painting progresses. Liquin, as I mentioned above, begins to dry quickly and colours loose their wet glassy appearance. I add a small amount of oil (5-10%) to Liquin to reduce the dulling of the darker tones. The time scale for this dulling caused by Liquin drying is under an hour and a half in Summer and maybe two hours in the colder months of Winter. Which means a little more oil in the mix at his time of year.
Brushes are something I take for granted as I assume the video of the painting process lets you see the different brushes and their use. Over the next few posts I intend to say a little about the brushes I use.
The colours used were: Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, Cadmium Yellow, Sap Green and Cerulean Blue. Plus Black and White of course.
PictureS 
I just LOVE this painting, especially the crows! Beautiful as always X
Thanks Emily.
I think we have the equivalent of your “crow-bangers” here in Michigan, only we call them “blueberry boom-booms”. Don’t know if they work or not, but they do get a lot of use. The horses, mine included, get used to the noise and never spook, so I guess the birds figure it out too. There must be enough blueberries for everybody, however, because there’s never any problem going to the farm down the road to purchase them!
You wonder why they bother.
Lovely composition, palette.
Thank you Elena.
Love the painting and the name of it. Thanks for the hard work.
You’re welcome Beatrix, I’m delighted you liked.
WOW. I love this painting.
Thank you Ali (i can’t get used to the new name).
: ) I know, it’s weird. Ali or Alissa will do just fine. I hope all is well with you and yours.
All’s well, more or less. Posts like ‘Getting Back Up’ worry me a little. I hope all’s well with you. Thanks Alissa.
Is Amazing what us can learn with a great painter. Thanks a lot!
Thanks Marco, you’ve got a very interesting looking site (even though I don’t understand the language).
Thank you Lian, I’m Brazilian and my language is the portuguese. You can see my personal site with my artwork here: http://www.bravostudio.com.br
What an amazing collection of work. You are very talented and versatile. Your figure work is brilliant.
So nice comment. thanks for the encouragement.
You’re welcome Marco.
Loving this – the warm colour of the sky, the dark underbrush, dark birds, and the light green-yellow leaves. Lovely!
Thank you Sampurna.
Oh this is wonderful. Even with the ‘tacky’ difficulties you had, the effect very much captures the moment full of playful crows. Exciting. Brilliant!
Thank you Pierr. Its the little difficulties that makes life interesting 🙂
Hi. We have ‘blue-berry boom-booms’ too… for scaring bears away from the blueberry crops. I like this painting… captures that moment when the birds are startled… I also like the detail of the fence and gate. Jane
The ‘boom-booms’ seems to have struck a chord 🙂 with people living in country areas.
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Lovely..
Thank you.
Fantastic work – I viewed the time-lapse painting as well – very instructional video and notes. I am very interested in the mediums mentioned and how they are used to their best advantage – thanks for the info.