Category: Front Page

I’m growing to love the feel of Indian yellow. It’s so warm and changes in helpful and earthy ways when you add a little yellow ochre and Payne’s grey in varying measures.

The colour of the loch remained very pasty and washed out for a lot of the build phase. It looked far away and super light like the distant day I wanted it to be the other side of the glen. I ended up getting very bored with it! Chucked on some French ultramarine and added a significant amount of Payne’s grey. Waited, then added titanium white carefully to create the waves, trying to follow the rules of perspective as best I could with a 00 brush and the edge of a palette knife.

I had a lot of fun creating the ghostly tree. It didn’t exist until the last 10% of creation. In it’s place was an expanse of reasonably plain grassland.

Rocks of varying shapes and sizes appear all over the place. I’m starting to enjoy painting rocks. The shadows, the cracks and the chaos certainly add some interest for the viewer and the creator!

See you soon with the next one!

Take care,

Simon

29.5″ x 25″

I’ve not had a tube of red ochre for long. It made a big appearance in this one! Along with the Pthalo Turquoise, it really deviates from the more controlled and subdued palette of the other oil paintings so far. I like lots about it and had a lot of fun but my favourite spots are the little light patches of the river water. I also love the way the trees form a good illusion of depth and form. Scratching stick had fun!

I’m going to come back to this article and explain the change of colour for the dunes. They started off light white/pale yellow. They started to annoy me, so out came the Red Ochre…

29.5″ x 25″

I had some ‘big change’ challenges with this one where I just couldn’t stand the direction the painting was going in. Mistakes were made, bold edits followed. At one point, a third of the painting was seawater! More insights to follow.

29.5″ x 25″

I really like what I managed to achieve with a big brush here. For this technique it’s all about loading up the brush and going for it but pausing and waiting to spot some areas of texture and colour that you simply cannot touch again. That happened lots in this painting and felt great!

Bringing the white of the sky down and dragging it around in the horizon really helped create a moody, rainy mist like perspective.

Payne’s Grey, Yellow ochre, Titanium White, French Ultramarine, Cobalt blue, Liquin, big brushes and a small scratching stick!

29.5″ x 25″