Working Hard

Came into the studio today with a whole uninterrupted day in front of me....and a need to finish off a couple of oil paintings in time for my exhibition with Rona in March. So there was no excuse for not getting on with some oil painting!

I wanted to try and finish my painting of Bracken Field. Always difficult to go back into a picture 'cold' so I wanted to 'warm up'. The main thing about this particular picture is the colour. Thought the best thing was therefore to do a quick pastel study as a warm up.

Bracken Field Pastel Study

There is a sumptuousness about oils which you don't get with acrylics. Starting to mix the colours engenders a bit of excitement, anticipation. It's lovely to have the colours in front of you, ready for exploration. With oils you can lose all sense of time....
I'm not sure that these pictures really show the progress I felt I made today....but here goes. Started with this.

Bracken Field in progress

This photo looks not bad, but the actual picture was technically poor, I thought. I wanted to improve on it but not lose the good points and the freshness. I was focusing on the foreground, trying to portray the bracken fronds without being too realistic. I next took stock at this point.

Bracken Field in progress

I carried on after this a little more, adding a little to the tree canopy, but the light was fading, so this pic is a bit blurry, I'm afraid.

Bracken Field - finished perhaps?

I do quite like this, and am pleased that I've managed to get some interesting foreground shapes. But the big test will be how I think it looks when I go into the studio again on Monday.

Having got the oils out, I turned to two other pictures, of the Lochcarron view and my iconic hill. The first is a very small picture (about 6" sq).

Lochcarron Shore (small)

And I was also half way through a larger picture of the same view. I was able in this bigger format to focus on the pattenrs of colour in the sea, and think about the sky and the far hills. But again, there were little things I didn't want to lose. Anyway, the other, larger pic ended up looking like this.