Having been laid low by sciatica, I've been working at home in the studio rather than trekking into the damp countryside. Here are some notes on the painting process as it applied to this small 10" x 12" painting.
It was started on site, with two one hour sessions on similar, dull grey days at around 11am. I took one reference shot the first time I was there.
Why did I choose this spot to paint? Well, having humped an easel all that way and finding my first choice subject somewhat wanting, I wasn't going home without a painting. I stomped around until I found something pretty. In this instance, the view down the side of what used to be a railway embankment before the Beeching cuts.
Back in the studio, the planes are separated out with glazes. A warm glaze of Raw Sienna on the sky, to work into with grey clouds. A cold glaze of Cerulean Blue on the field at the back, to push it away before I start modelling the crop. A warm glaze of Raw Sienna and Cadmium Yellow in the foreground grass before I start adding weeds and grass.
I model the hawthorne hedge with shadows and add some edge detail. As well as sky holes, it's got field holes where the field behind shows through - it's best to pick and choose the number and placing of these to avoid a flat, lace doily look, and keep an impression of substantial form.
Oak saplings in the foreground have been drawn in as outlines, to be worked on later. Furrows in the field and the foreground path at far right lead the eye into the painting and towards the tree at the far left, taking the eye past everything of interest along the way.
I realize at this point that some edge detail - tree top at left, telegraph pole and horse trough at the right - will be cut off by the frame rabbet, and wonder what to do about it. Best to take this into account before you start, but never mind.
At this stage I consider the overall colour and how to liven it up. Being a landscape, it is pretty green. It's sometimes good to push the edge colours a little to separate the planes. Given that the field at the back has been glazed blue, I work into the hedge with orange. Red added to dark green livens up the hedgerow shadows a little. If it's still too samey I'll start thinking about overall glazes to get more colour variety in there. Glazes eat light, though. Things can get murky, and also weird if you get an unanticipated optical mixture.
At no point does the notion of finish come into it. I'm happy to paint just tight enough. This doesn't mean that I let things slide, or let bad painting stand. I'll work and rework an area until it says what I want it to say. I just don't do it with a tiny brush and my tongue sticking out of the corner of my mouth.
If you find yourself painting individual leaves with an eyelash taped to a toothpick, you should quit painting and turn to something more obsessive. Building a one to one scale model of Chartres cathedral out of pasta, maybe.
