ACROSS THE FIELDS

 

Yet another older painting. This study was done around the same time as 'PathTo The Lake' shown in the last post but while that one was a summer painting, this one is earlier in the year - perhaps late spring. Grass is well established in the fields around and a small creek draws the eye into the distance. I'm not sure if there was water there all year, probably not but for now, it helps create a little more depth in the expanse of the field that leads to some distant woods. Passing storm clouds are clearing from the sky as the afternoon descends into evening. This is probably not the best photo I have of this painting so I'll try and upload a better one soon. Size is 7 x 5 in (18 x 13 cm), oil on canvas board.

PATH TO THE LAKE

 

I started this smaller work when we still lived in the old house. This view at the bottom of the hill looking east was one we would see during our usual evening walk down to the lake. There we would watch the return of hundreds of geese as they came in to roost for the night - along with a few ducks. Lately I found this small work again and decided that it still needed a little work. So after an hour or so gently modifying some of the tones and adding a bit more color to the sky, I declared it finished. This is an oil on canvas, 7 x 7 in (18 x 18 cm).

DEEP SNOW STUDY

 

It took me more than a week to finish this painting - not because I was working on it for so long but that I had to set it aside for awhile each session as I tried to capture the tones of the scene. The sky was kept simple so as to keep your eye to the strip of winter trees and hills just behind. I liked how they contrasted with the much lighter almost pure white snow. I may develop this study into a series of winter paintings especially now that it started to get cold in the mornings around here - winter must be just around the corner!

EVENING SKY STUDY

 

Another sky painting! This view is one of looking out of the window across a dark and somewhat distant landscape. A thin strip of water can be seen. I kept the lower part of the painting without many details intentionally as I wanted the focus to be on the sky. This small and necessarily quick study doesn't have the finish of my larger painting but then, I was trying to capture what I saw in front of me before the effects of the light and cloud shapes disappeared. This one is an 8 x 10 in (20 x 26 cm), oil on board.

CLOUD STACK

 

I painted these clouds pretty much as I saw them, being impressed with the way the clouds appeared to be stacked on top of each other. I decided to concentrate solely on the sky with this one and only represented the horizon line as a slightly darker tone. Although the values are quite close together, there is still a feeling of perspective looking at the finished work. Slightly reducing the size of the clouds as they descend into the distance also helped. Since I have such spectacular views from my studio window, I try and do a few sky paintings every month. Sometimes these are only as an experiment, other times to capture something exciting that I have seen or simply as an idea for a landscape that I have in mind. This one is a 9 x 12 in (23 x 30 cm), oil on canvas.

WHITE PINE STUDY

 

Recently completed, this small painting was done as a pre-study for a much larger painting. Since I had my gouache paints to hand, I used them instead of watercolor as I usually do but it worked out fine. I think I am headed in the right direction with this one and in fact, have already drawn out the larger version. I hope to get to it soon. Size is 8.5 x 6 in (22 x 15 cm), gouache on Crelando watercolor paper.

MID-DAY SUN VI, PART 2

 

Spending some time working on the doors helped bring this painting closer to completion. Mostly it was a case of slowly working along each plank adding subtle washes of color and creating interest with some details of the woodgrain etc. There was less of the original red paint left in this area due to the heavier weathering these doors got and I tried to keep the effect random, adding color where I thought would be best. A slightly darker wash was added to the lower part of the shadow on the left as I felt this was a bit too light and I slightly greyed the white strip as I felt it was a bit too bright. The two hinges were detailed along with their shadows, also some smaller cracks and splits were done in the ends of the wooden planks but tried to keep it all understated. I didn’t want to overwork the painting by adding too many details so after stepping back to take a long look, decided to leave it as it was for now. Later, I’ll take it out again and see if there is anything else to do, so far though I was happy with the result. In reflection, I think that perhaps the painting could have been a little more subtle if I had used watercolor instead of acrylic. Anyway, this is something to consider perhaps when I do more in this series. This one was painted on stretched Bockingford watercolor paper, 22 x 15 in, (56 x 38 cm).