Top of pines

Top of pines - oil on panel - 8" x 6"

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More trees!

More paintings of trees! I used to look at paintings of the woods and wonder how they were done, so much detail in real life, how it was simplified and organized... I am slowly learning.

The figures really suggested scale in the photo. I wish I could do that in my paintings, but at the moment I am not confident at adding figures to my work as I believe a weak figure will weaken the entire painting.

Two crows - oil on panel - 12" x 9"

Nature's tally - oil on panel - 12" x 9"

 I was sitting on the side of the trail as I painted the above painting, many people would walk pass and look to the direction I was looking at, to see what glorious view I was painting, but no one slowed down and I supposed it's because they didn't see anything interesting.

Painting really opens my eyes, it helps me see beauty everywhere, more than ever. This is the view the hikers would see at 4 km per hour.

Here is my trick for sitting on soft ground, in order for the chair legs to not sink in the dirt I fold a garbage bags a few times and put it under the legs.

New phase

I am going through this phase where I love to paint trees, especially pine trees. They usually come in large numbers, show off depth well and easier to paint than a deciduous tree with 500 irregular branches. It's usually dark in the woods too which I like; it gives me an illumination level that's unique with an overall green brownish colour cast.

Central Park walkway - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

Pine woods at Central park - oil on panel - 12" x 9"

Heather took these nice pictures of me. The pictures seem bright but it was actually quite dark. In the second picture you can see the book light that I used to brighten my painting surface.

Heather says the cherry trees here look like cotton candies, I guess the clouds too? I drove around in pouring rain and finally decided on this spot, and the rain stopped and the sky cleared.

Candy land - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

This one was at Jericho beach. Both Heather and I feel like we have seen this painting somewhere before, but neither of us can remember.

Corridor - oil on panel - 12" x 9"

Having had done so many paintings at Penzance beach, I am starting to try to squeeze the last juice out of it. Whenever I get to a new place I go for the low hanging fruit, the obvious nice views. After several paintings, it gets harder and harder to find a different subject, though the decision making process is always based on the arrangements of shapes.

Rocks on Penzance beach - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

A few from last week

This is another attempt with the Zorn palette, yellow orchre, Cad. red, ivory black and white. The rain in the distant moved through above me and leave me in a down pour for quite a while, it eventually moved away.

Reflections can come in many forms, most visibly affected by the wind. When it's very windy, the surface is not roughed up, so the reflection is broken up and the water only has diffuse reflection and appears rough. Sometimes the wind only blows on a patch of water and makes it rough whereas everywhere else is smooth and reflective. When there's no wind and no movement of water we have almost mirror reflection (from a low view angle anyway). In this painting, the look of the reflection changed through many phases and when it showed up as in the below picture, I decided I liked it best and kept it in the painting. It's one of the reasons why I like painting on location, it gives me many options and choices that I wouldn't have otherwise from a photo. I am not a very imaginative person so i require nature to give me her many faces.

Red Alder on Penzance beach - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

I still want to do more paintings using this palette, but preferably with the majority of the surface be yellows or reds, so the black would appear more blue.

When I first started. You can see that the reflection is not very appealing.

 

Here is a more cheerful spring painting. I wanted to paint the cherry blossom so bad I gave this tree cherry flowers even though it wasn't blooming. 

- oil on panel - 9" x 12"

I went back to Barnett park. It offers so many possibility. I added the bare dirt in the foreground to break up all that grass. I think it adds more interest. Have you found the robin yet?

A window at Barnett - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

I am liking painting with the pochade box on my laps instead of the tripod. It feels a lot more intimate to me. I do have to set it down every time when I get up and step back to look at the painting.

I love it when I don't feel rushed during painting. Here I was sitting near the water at Barnett park, with birds squabbling, mostly seagulls and crows, the robins were singing; a few people were casting crab traps near by, making slashes once in a while; and I was faced with the mirror like water and leaf buds on the birches in stillness, it was perfect.

The hardest part in this painting was to keep the birches dark. They were white, my brain told me they were white, but I had to paint dark browns and greens because that's what they were against the sky, not white. Fighting the convention with the truth that your eyes are telling you requires discipline that I am enjoying learning it.

Los amigos - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

The sun would come out every now and then.

Nightfall at Penzance

I really like painting at dusk or down, the logistic is always an issue. What looks good during the day may not does when it's dark, even if it is you have to adjust the composition to suit the different lighting and the new shapes it creates. When I set up to paint this, I didn't know what it'd look like in the dark, I had to make a decision based on the silhouette, and the overall mass of the darks.

One way to go about it more safely is to scout the location beforehand in the dark, and then go back to it the day after so you can have the precise composition planned.

Nightfall at Penzance - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

Dark oil paintings usually have the problem of having a lot of glare. For picture taking, I took it from an angle where there was least glare (not frontal), then in Photoshop I distort the corners to make it look normal. There are better ways than this such as using a circular polarizer. I do have one but it doesn't fit the lens I was using.

Penzance beach

This is very typical of my method. I like to find a place that has a lot of potential, and usually somewhat secluded so I can paint in peace, and I go back again and again until I pretty much exhaust the location. As seasons change, it becomes pretty much a new spot again to go back.

Penzance sketch noon - oil on panel - 5" x 7"

Penzance sketch noon - oil on panel - 5" x 7"

The beach is tidal, so before I leave I check the tide charts to make sure the tide is low and that I have enough time to finish a painting.


This one below was done using the Zorn palette even though apparently he didn't always use it, but the name has stuck.

He used white, black, vermillion and yellow ochre. I don't have vermillion, the genuine one is very toxic and I use Cad. red instead. Ivory black when tinted with white has a bluish tint to it, very subtle but when surrounded by yellows can look very blue. In this sketch there wasn't much yellow, instead it was mostly blue, so I shall use this palette again with a more suitable subject.

Penzance sketch gulls - oil on panel - 5" x 7"

I don't usually do vertical format and I like the wide expanse of the landscape. Though to show the vast sky and voluminous clouds I think the vertical format presents many benefits, though square ones can be very good too, gives you the best of the both worlds.
In this painting, composition and positions of the clouds were decided before I started painting, this way even though the clouds move away as I painted my design and composition would not suffer.

Green water - oil on panel 12" x 9"