Last Gold

This scene i’ve painted previously (here) in summer time. Now in winter, nothing remains of the glorious green foliage. Its amazing the difference a few months make.

I’ve had a few requests to do a video in real time as opposed to a time lapse. I’m working on this at the moment trying to do a sequence of the painting of the tree on the left. I will post the video when I have it done. The problems are mostly technical to do with file size for uploading but also the editing. This is the most problematic as I rarely paint a compete item from start to finish, but flit about the painting, doing a little bit of everything. I have to find and isolate the bits which are specifically relating to the tree. Say, 3 or 4 seconds, then maybe a 3 minute sequence, then a few more seconds, all mixed up in the complete painting. Real time is precisely that – real time. The hour and twenty minutes have to be trawled through time and time again, looking for the relevant pieces.

I’m not sure there is anything more to be gained from ‘real time’ video as opposed to time-lapse. Anything longer than 3 or 4 minutes, without a prepared commentary, varied camera angles, etc. etc., is torturous to watch. I’ve been there, done that and it simply doesn’t work. A professional show case or instructional video is a different matter entirely.

Please accept my videos as diary entries, unedited raw footage. Recorded and uploaded without much post production, convenient and fast. What I lack in professional video production, I hope to make up in quantity and variety.

I’ve used exactly the same colours as the previous painting. They are Raw Sienna, Raw Umber and Prussian Blue. Its amazing how different these same 3 colours are, in this painting.

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.

Kilkea Bridge, First Snow

First snow, a little bit premature perhaps, but the weather men are talking about the threat, or promise, of snow in the near future. Its a year since I painted a snowscape and my approach to painting has changed in that time. Previously I painted the landscape, shadows and mid-tones, in solvent rich transparent layers. When the solvent evaporated I placed the snow, as a pure white paint, on top of the flat paint layer. By working the white into the under layers it picked up some colour and this added shadow colour to the snow. Check out these paintings and method by typing the word “snow” or “Christmas” in the search box on the left side of this page.

The painting above progressed as a standard landscape with the snow added, not as pure white, but like the standard highlights of a landscape with more white added. The result is less contrasty and harsh.

The painting is 18″ x 12″ and was completed in 2 and a half hours. The colours are limited to 3, Yellow Ochre, Raw Umber and Cobalt Blue. I’m still not using black. I used Liquin to produce smooth transparent under-layers in the sky and distant trees. As I said in previous posts, ‘solvent only’ under-layers exaggerate the canvas texture, Liquin coats and smooths the texture.

Here is the painting video. See you soon.