River Griese near Kilkea
The day is calm, cold with a light dusting of snow. I like dramatic skies but for this scene I had to resist the urge and paint a ‘flat’ sky.
As you will see in the accompanying video, I put a pattern of cloud-like shapes in the sky area. These are ‘islands of paint’ on the blank canvas. Part of this area has a wash of Raw Sienna and solvent only. This was allowed to peep through the later layers to suggest sunset colours behind the gloom of grey. When these ‘islands of paint’ are blended with a flat brush they join up and produce an almost invisible pattern. The original ‘islands’ had a rough perspective applied, that is, the bigger shapes were higher up and slightly darker in colour.
The mid-ground, snow covered field needed an underlying pattern for the same reasons as the ‘flat’ sky needed a bit of variation. This area was coated in a transparent layer, with Liquin medium added. This was then lifted off with a brush moistened with solvent. When the pure white was lightly brushed onto this, a range of subtle colours were produced. There is transparency and opacity in this area, better than a thick layer of white.
The size is 16″ x 12″ and was painted in about 2 hours. 3 colours only used, Raw Sienna, Raw Umber and Prussian Blue plus white but no black. As mentioned, Liquin was used to produce smooth transparent washes and help with the fine lines painted onto the wet under layers.
Here’s the video. See you soon.
PictureS 
Lovely work, Liam. The first thing that grabbed my attention in this one was the colour of the sky, which complements the snow perfectly. The whole painting gave me that sense of breathlessness you get on a frosty morning.
marion
Thank you Marion. There’s nothing like an early morning stroll 🙂
Hello Liam!
At first I would like to sorry for my bad English.
And I would like to ask you bout the purport of your blog? If it is the show how you able to paint – all fine, the blog is super!
But I hope that you want to show your technique for beginners too, if so, it is very annoying that all your video is in the fast speed.
It is impossible to catch all beginner’s needed sings.
I think, It will be very helpful for all if you post normal speed video, or 3-5 15min videos piecemeal.
I do not say about all your paintings, but even if of the best your paintings.
Thank you.
Most artists produce a showcase video as a promotional tool, either to sell their work or sell a technique. While this video is in production (editing, voiceover and soundtrack) they continue to paint other works. I try and document every painting, from beginning to end in video, like a diary, and this can be several paintings a week. A 2 hour high definition movie is difficult and time consuming to produce, even for a professional, which I’m not. I try to have high definition, accurate colour and correct lighting. This makes the file size enormous so I film in time-lapse to reduce the size. I spend more time producing the video than painting the picture. Also my broadband is not very good – that means very slow to upload video. So I’m limited by time and technology.
Thank you for your answer. ok, but can you upload a small (1-2 min) video of painting some of the most interesting moments (sky, trees, grass, snow…)?
I have just completed a painting which I will post in a few days. It took about an hour and a half. I will upload a few real time excerpts on YouTube and will include the links in the post. I hope you find them helpful.
This is one of my very, very favorites! The softness . . . I feel the chill, but delight in the sensation.
additional info for my previous comment.
Liam, here – http://netu.tv/ , you can upload your video up to 2Gb, and all people will have the opportunity to watch the painting process in normal speed video. If you can please upload this painting here.
thanks for sharing your work this way! like it!
Thank you and your welcome.
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Good morning Liam….I am in the learning process of “loose painting” and have run into a problem. I am painting a harbor scene, buildings on each side, small boats in the water. My problem is the water in the harbor itself, especially as it gets closer to “me”….I would welcome any hints and suggestions you have can lend. Thank you in advance for you page here>
For a long time I had problems with reflections in water. In the end I discovered painting water was like painting the sky, except in reverse. Its colours become gradually richer and deeper as it gets closer. Also, reflections are sharper and are distorted by the surface movement. If you look at this painting https://liamrainsford.com/2012/03/23/beside-the-lake-time-lapse-painting/ you will see how I managed the water as it came into the foreground.