#9 - "April Evening"
Original Oil 6x8"
10/04/18 (6:45pm)
This scene is a 5 minute walk from my house, and I always find it most captivating near the end of the day as the sun drops lower in the sky. It seemed too difficult to paint around the trees, so they were added at the end while the painting was still wet (oh the joy of 6x8!). I have always had a bit of trouble with tree shapes, so I really worked here to study them carefully before painting them, and they came surprisingly easily. I started with a dark mass in their general shape, suggested the detail with some middle tones, and the trusty palette knife came in to play once again for the trunks. Without them this painting was a wiper, so yay! that they worked.
The depth in this painting is incredible, Liz, and the trees in the foreground are the perfect touch! Do you have any idea how far some of us have to drive to see a "tall hill", much less a mountain?
ReplyDeleteThanks for you lovely comments Ann. I do feel incredibly grateful to live in such an inspiring environment, and never take it for granted. I've lived here 25 years and I am still daily in awe. Last night I was out painting and actually felt compelled to leave for a moment and run a couple minutes away to photograph the sun setting on another stunning range because even though I've seen it a thousand times, it had never looked quite that way before. Magic.
ReplyDeleteI think the way you've placed the trees makes the composition and how well you've painted them - little detail but the detail is there in the viewer's imagination.Thankyou for writing down your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteOh, Liz, this one is a stunner! And after "Lake Louise" too. Your mountains are so great. As for the foreground trees, amazing. They look so much closer, it feels like I could touch them. When you say you did the trees with the palette knife, do you mean that you scratched them in, just revealing what was underneath (which was an underpainting?) or that you painted them in with paint on the knife? And thanks so much for explaining, it is so nice of you to keep doing that for us!
ReplyDeleteHi Bobbi,
ReplyDeleteI painted them with the palette knife, just loaded it up with paint and then touched the edge to the painting where I wanted trunks. Getting it to land in the right place is a bit of a trick.
wow, are you blessed with your environment. lovely painting. enjoying your blog a lot
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