Before The Morning Burn Off 5" x 7" Oil / Panel

This is a small, quick sketch, that may deserve to be painted larger during the winter season. As you can see in the illustration, the background was pre stained a yellow orange (over gesso) and wiped before drying to even out the stain.

The middle ground trees, were mixed by combining a ultramarine blue, titanium white, a little cad. yellow med. and a touch of alizarin crimson. The foreground trees were made up of ultramarine blue, (mostly) some alizarin and a touch of white. Now get this...a little bit of viridian (green). A new colour to my palette for the summer. The foreground grasses were also the viridian green that was modified by the addition yellow, ( to warm up the area) white and in some areas cerulean blue can be seen as an addition.
So again, my limited palette with the addition of my new green were the colours of choice.

Small but effective, framed and hanging over a small table lamp beside my reading chair... ; ) It was a fun piece !

'til next...

Summer's Beginning 8" x 10" Oil/Panel

This little painting is a little different than any of the previous pieces that I have painted. It is only different in that I toned the gessoed panel with a lemon yellow stain. This is the first time that I can remember using something other than the usual reddish stain. It seemed a little strange at the start. The sketch , to my eyes, looked to be really 'contrasty' in comparison to previous starts on the more familiar red background.

For this painting , I used my usual limited palette, as mentioned in previous paintings. The initial sketch in this painting, I must add, was layed in using ultramarine blue and burnt sienna. I have recently read that using this combination rather than ultramarine blue and alizarin ( alizarin being less permanent) which is my habit, produces a sketch that when other colours are applied over it, produces a less "muddy" mix. Hmm, I am not so sure, ..yet. The jury is still out on that one.

Painting with the yellow stained background has been a good eye opener and fun exercise.

'til next..

Red Barn And Spring Pasture 10" x 12" O/P

This small painting just seemed to paint itself. Isn't that a great feeling when that happens ? Even the palette does not appear as 'messy' as usual.

I started with my usual stained panel ( as instructed in past posts)
This time , I tyred not to paint the individual trees as such but to paint them as a whole, changing the colours and values as I worked, mostly from right to left. Once I reached the barn area, It seemed to lay in easily. I feel that because the background stain of the panel 'fit' my base colour of the barn it was just a matter of laying in lighter colours or values of the red surface of the barn. It was at this stage of the painting that I actually began to pay attention to the drawing of the barn, silo and the little building in front, and at the same time playing with the colours and their values to make them appear as one unit.
Strangely enough, it was at this time that I began to lay in the sky.
Next came the foreground with it's different values of green. Theses short strokes were layed in both horizontal and vertical . Small areas of 'weeds' and 'sticks', etc. may be seen also.

Another fun painting... Love it when a plan comes together.

"til next

Mail Call.. 10"x 12" o/p

For the most part, the Lilacs have sadly, all but disappeared. Still, the softer greens of spring are enough incentive to paint this time of year.

This piece is painted on a prepared Masonite panel with a final OMS wash of alizarin and cadmium yellow medium, 'blow' dried and gently rubbed down with a paper towel.
I used the limited palette and added some sap green as well for this painting.

After this painting has completely dried , I plan to add some dandelions in the foreground, on either side of the road, to add some colour interest.

This was a fun piece to paint.

'til next

Spring Lilacs 18" x 24" o/p

The weather forecast called for rain today. Rather than loose a day of painting, I decided to do a 'still life' . My choice for this paining was the lilacs that grow around my home. They seem to me to speak of Spring.

The panel for this painting is Masonite with three coats of gesso and a with a OMS (Odourless Mineral Spirit) wash of oil colour. In this case, the colour was Alizarin , tempered with Cadmium Yellow Medium. After the ground colour had been applied, it was evaporated with the use of a hair dryer and gently rubbed down to even out the colour, absorb the excess and to help expose the texture of the gesso.

The colours for the painting were my usual limited palette. No other colours were added.

It was nice to work on a larger panel than I had been used to using this past winter.

'til next...

...And Apple Blossom White 9" x 12" o/p

This piece was painted on a panel that was prepared with three coats of gesso followed by two coats of 'red-yellow'(alizarin and cad. yellow med.) medium wash (odourless mineral spirits) .

My latest limited palette was the palette of choice for this spring painting. This palette was listed in the previous post.

The 'black flies' were out in full force, making plein air painting near impossible. A couple of weeks with heat should burn them off...hopefully.

'til next...

Spring Flood 10" x 12" Oil/Panel

Well, here we go, back to the limited palette. For this painting I decided to go with Ultramarine Blue, Cerulean Blue, Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Lemon Yellow and Titanium White as my palette. This palette should brighten things up for spring.

As you can see, the panel was prepared with a final coat of Alizarin and Cadmium Yellow Medium combination preceded by two coats of gesso. Finally, I wiped the panel with a paper towel to even out the colour coating and to help expose the texture of the gesso.

After roughing in the composition with the darker combination of Ultramarine Blue and Alizarin, I painted in the lighter background colours. For example, the lighter background trees and their lighter tops. These lighter colours helped to make the middle ground dark trees to 'stand out' and at the same time 'push' the lighter colours behind them further into the background. This was planned in the layout or composition at the beginning. The right side of the painting has a larger and darker mass of trees that was worked in with the darkest colours, and enhanced with the lighter greens of the odd branches. This larger mass of darker (impression) foreground trees, along with the bright greens in the lower front of the painting helps to establish a solid foreground. The impression of the water was then added.

Hey, great black fly weather, eh ?

'til next.