December

We have not had snow, yet, but these frosty foggy days, for a few hours each day, leave a carpet of white, glowing until its burnt away by the midday sun.

I liked the contrast between the dark ragged spiky hawthorn tree and the blanket of soft white frost. As you will see in the video, I used a painting knife to draw the fine branches of the tree. No brush, regardless of how small, could achieve the sharpness of these lines on such a small painting (12″x9″).

A painting knife is specifically designed, like a builder’s trowel, to allow paint be applied without your fingers touching the surface of the painting. A palette knife is usually flat and difficult to use as a painting tool. The only time I use a painting knife is when I need a fine line, either by painting as above or scratching into the wet paint.

This painting has the same colours as the previous one i.e. Raw Sienna, Raw Umber, Dioxazine Purple, Cerulean Blue plus black and white. There is no medium used, only White Spirits.

Here’s the video of the painting process which took just under 2 hours. Excuse the slightly ‘dodgy’ clip of the painting of the river..No, I was not using 2 brushes at the same time – SD card problems while recording!