Saturday 29 February 2020

Dayburst

Oil on Board, 6 x 8 inches. 

I'm doing a lot of experimenting with my efforts to become more painterly, ie., getting the final result looking more obviously a painting. This seemed a good subject to try this out some more. I'm quite pleased with the result, especially the cluster of trees on the right, painted with a soft, flat brush, rather than the more spiky household brush I've used since Noah was a boy.

Silver Dawn, Duddington

Oil on board, 12 x 17 inches.


This painting started life as a demo a couple of weeks ago, finished off in the studio today. I love painting frost, and with a low sun again, this was a challenge to portray the brightness of the sun at the top left of the picture. I used a pallette knife to give just that bit more intensity to the pure light.

Snow Sunset

Oil on board, 9 x 12 inches. 

We're waiting for snow here, but when we did get snow in 2018, I took a few photos and this painting is a result of them. Just down the road from my studio, I was driving home when I saw the glorious sun behind some low clouds, creating this fabulous view. When the sun is low and casting strong shadows, snow can appear very blue, and the highlights pink - a tone down from the brightness of the sun itself. The key to a successful painting is noticing the subtle differences in tone. Had I painted the highlights on the snow pure white, the sun's intensity would have been lost. It's raining the eye to paint what you see and not what you know, or think you see.

Friday 21 February 2020

Winter Tones, Duddington

Oil on Board 6 x 8 inches
 
My first completed painting for ages - running this gallery malarkey takes up a lot of time! I polished this one off with some looser brushstrokes again, in my effort to evolve into a more painterly artist and to capture the essence of the scene. Such a different method I'm using, and it's fun, and I think more painterly, so just hope I'm heading in the right direction...

Clearing Fog


Oil on board, 10 x 14 inches. 

This was demo painting I did recently, completed in the studio. Foggy scenes are tricky to paint - it's getting the receding, close tones light enough, I find. There are no really dark tones when fog pervades, and here, the darkest dark is on the frosted Teasel heads in the right foreground.