Monday 20 April 2009

Back to the Brush

Yesterday I promised myself that I would get out the brushes again and decided that I'd head for my favourite stretch of coast near Souter lighthouse. The variety of rocks and cliffs along this part of the coast is challenging territory in more ways than one, not least because of the ever changing light. I try to make an early decision about light direction and shadow and incorporate that into my underpainting so that it informs the rest of the painting. This is more difficult than it sounds, particularly when the light flattens and contrasting values become difficult to see.

Another lesson learned today is that a fortnight without painting doesn't make it easy to start again and I took a little time to get into the process and didn't achieve either fluency or decent value placement. The best I can say is that I'm back smelling of linseed and troubling the canvas again.



Souter - Oil on canvas board 10"x8"

2 comments:

Daniel Corey said...

Hey Mick, this is a sweet rock study! has a bit of reality while still looking like paint! my favorite!

Unknown said...

Dan - just good to be out again after a little break. Hopefully these little studies will develop into something more substantial when I get satisfied with the way they are looking. I have it in mind to base a more substantial project on these pieces that I do along this section of coast.