Orchard Gate

Although it feels like Autumn, recent rain has kept the greens of Summer. There is no hint of the typical yellows, oranges or browns so far.

This is a painting of tired greens and grey skies but what a dull picture this would make. I still wanted to represent this time of year, between the vivid green of Summer and the approaching colours of Autumn. The underpainting was a mixture of vivid harsh colour, painted with solvent. This was allowed to evaporate before the duller greyish, final colour was added. The under-colours influenced the final dull colours when brushed in, but in some places this under-colour was allowed to peep through.

I used an unusual composition by placing the point of interest in the centre and reinforcing this by placing the sun (partially obscured by cloud) directly above. Its not the ‘text book’ way of doing things but it does create a dynamic within an otherwise dull scene. The rest of the scene ‘see-saws’ about this central point acting like a fulcrum.

It has been pointed out to me that some of the subtle tints caused by blending of greys and vibrant under-colour is not represented well on the video or photograph. This is true because of the limitations of photography. The actual painting always looks better than the photograph. I wonder have these limitations influenced the way colour is used in artwork which is destined to be reproduced in print or on computer screens?

Winsor Lemon, Alizarin Crimson, Dioxazine Purple and Cobalt Blue (plus black and white of course) were the colours used here. You will notice on the video, 2 lumps of white. One is standard Titanium oil paint and the other is Alkyd fast drying oil paint. I’m mixing them 50/50 at the moment to retard the drying of the Alkyd colours, especially in blending the sky colours. Alkyd dries very fast. Sometimes a little too fast when colour needs to be manipulated as in the sky.

Here’s the video. See you soon.

Island Farm

This time of year, between showers, the sunshine is intense with amazing blue skies.

Cerulean blue for the most part, but its a difficult colour to darken for the deeper shades of the sky. Having a deeper, darker blue at the top of the sky is essential to give depth and perspective. Normally I would add French Ultramarine to darken Cerulean. But I like the extremely limited palette of a single pigment for the red, yellow and blue. The only secondary colours I use are green (Viridian, Sap, Chrome) or orange (Ochres, Cadmiums) and I never used purple, until now.

Dioxazine Purple, by W&N, mixed nicely with Cerulean. The resultant colour was very similar to French Ultramarine and very blue when used transparently. But what a surprise when diluted with white – its mauve, very different from the raw colour.

As its such a strong colour, in my usual manner, I made sure there was plenty spread about the canvas as an under colour. The other colours used were, Cadmium Yellow, Indian Red, Cerulean Blue plus Titanium White and Ivory black.

This time I used the tiniest amount of Liquin not to speed up drying but to slow it down. Remember I use Alkyd fast drying oils and at this time of year they were drying too fast, especially in the sky colours. I mix Alkyd and standard oils depending on colours, for example there is no Cadmium Yellow in Alkyd, only Cadmium Yellow Hue. The same with Cerulean.

Paint suppliers warn about mixing Alkyd and standard oils. The problems occur when used in distinct thick dry layers, because of the different rates of drying leading to loss of adhesion and cracking. Using my ‘alls prima’ method, if not well mixed on the palette they are definitely well mixed on the canvas.

Here’s the video, see you soon.