Scarlet Meadow

Oil on Board, 10 x 14 inches

What artist can resist a field of Poppies? Their bright scarlet colour just stirs the soul. This painting is actually an amalgam from three photographs. The view is from the top of our village cricket field and the poppies and field margin are from a field towards Barrowden. I know some of you like to see the stages of a painting, so I took a few as I progressed:

Stage 1 and I scrubbed in the basic tones with very thin paint, diluted a little with white spirit, and put a wash of neutral grey over the sky.

Stage 2 and I painted in the sky, partly from photos and partly from the sky outside my studio.

Stage 3 and I painted in the backdrop of distant trees and fields and established the darkest bluish tones of the mid-distant trees.

Stage 4 and I painted in the lighter tones of the trees with my 1" household brush, then put in the line of Poppies. Then I continued to refine the near tree on the left and added a few more details on some Poppies, using a palette knife, then dragged in some layers of paint to establish the grasses of the field margin, as can be seen in the finished painting at the top.