So I just started painting again.
A small (6" x 6") oil on board taken from a landscape photograph I took a while ago. It's some hawthorne in bloom, around June, taken on a hot morning when I went for a walk, gathering a crop of photographs to work from.
It's a bit loose and brushworky, since I dropped the fiddly oil and tempera technique I used. Now I stick to the simplest methods: oil paint in layers, fat on lean. Word of advice to painters - if it looks about right, leave it alone. Before you foul it up.
I had a long think about scale, and decided to work between 6" x 6" at the smallest, and 16" x 20" at the largest, at least for now. I used to finish about three paintings a year. Now, I'm trying to scale that up, and doing smaller work is an obvious step.
I finally bought a decent, portable, plein air easel too, so I'll be out and about when the weather turns. Photographs work, but there's no substitute for painting on site.
A small (6" x 6") oil on board taken from a landscape photograph I took a while ago. It's some hawthorne in bloom, around June, taken on a hot morning when I went for a walk, gathering a crop of photographs to work from.
It's a bit loose and brushworky, since I dropped the fiddly oil and tempera technique I used. Now I stick to the simplest methods: oil paint in layers, fat on lean. Word of advice to painters - if it looks about right, leave it alone. Before you foul it up.
I had a long think about scale, and decided to work between 6" x 6" at the smallest, and 16" x 20" at the largest, at least for now. I used to finish about three paintings a year. Now, I'm trying to scale that up, and doing smaller work is an obvious step.
I finally bought a decent, portable, plein air easel too, so I'll be out and about when the weather turns. Photographs work, but there's no substitute for painting on site.
I sat down at one point and tried to figure out a list of subjects, only to end up admitting that I'd have to stick to landscape - and maybe still life on wet days at home. Second word of advice to painters - paint what you love. I love the look of things around here. Gorgeous spring, lush summer, misty autumn and stark winter, all with their own colour schemes and points of interest. Open countryside precisely one strolling minute away from my front door. I wouldn't live anywhere else.
