Bright Days of Autumn

Shortening days and low sun, otherwise it feels like summer. The harvest has started and the frenzy of activity in the fields lasts long into the night. Recent rain has kept the classic colours of Autumn at bay and green hedgerows and trees are a stark contrast to the golden fields of corn.

While I’m still on the quest to lighten my colours, I couldn’t resist using Cadmium Yellow to convey the bright glimmering colours in this scene. As in the last painting I used very little black in the paint mixes. Still only three colours used though, the other two were Burnt Umber and French Ultramarine Blue. As usual I’ve not used any medium and other than the initial solvent washes, very little solvent (White Spirits) was used in the mixes.

This is painted on Oil Painting Paper which has a smoother texture than canvas so the paint really does not have to be very wet to spread over the surface. As I said in a recent post, this ground was far too absorbent for traditional oils but works well with the Alkyd Oil Colours I’m currently using.

The painting is 16″x10″ and was completed in about 2 hours. As usual I’ve videoed the painting process and will post in a few days. See you then.