Morning Lake

There are signs of spring everywhere. The dead dry vegetation of last summer is infiltrated with this year’s new shoots, a haze of green.

This is another ‘hybrid’ painting – a mix of Alkyd and traditional oils. Here I wanted to try ‘scumbling’. This is where fresh paint is dragged across the surface of an already dry layer, normally painted at least a few days previously. With Alkyd as the under layer, I can do this effect in a single painting session.

You can see this in the sky and water. Lighter shades of colour are placed on top of the darker washes of Alkyd, without he two colours blending together into a single paint layer. This is vibrant and in the large expanse of sky and water, the added texture allows this large featureless area to work with the very solid structure of the lake shore on the right.

Alkyds have expanded the capabilities of oil paint for me. At the moment I’m pushing this extra freedom especially into areas previously unavailable to me as an alla prima painter. The medium is dictating the type and therefore the subject matter of the paintings I’m attempting at the moment.

I will post the video in a few days. See you then.