Monday, March 23, 2009

Equinox

We have made it into the land of equal light and dark.  The summer paint is out and the clothing is down to 3 light layers.  Here we are in the Beaver Valley looking up at "Old Baldy".  There are a few hidden snow patches.  For this image one challenge is how to make one feature the leading star and the others supporting actors.  The thumbnail sketch showed 5 colour masses as a result of squinting.


Season Opener, 12x12 oil on canvas

The start this time consisted of a dull semitransparent yellow applied thin with OMS.  It was "dry" to the touch in a few minutes.  Then a mass in was done to cover the canvas - sky (two blues), the dark Peak (blues, viridian, violet) with a few holes left in showing the yellow underpainting, rust and gray bush (blues, orange, red), the barn (same mixture as the bush), and the underpainting for the straw field.  The finish consisted in modifying each colour mass to give variations and value and add gradations.  In the barn more emphasis was placed with subordination - making it close in value to the bush.  Finally, edges were altered for subordination and eye candy.

A #6 flat bristle brush was used for this painting.  The palette was ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, viridian, yellow ochre, cadmium orange, alizarine, titanium white.

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