Wednesday 7 September 2016

Bonfire and Cloud Shadow

Oil on Board, 7 x 9.5 inches SOLD

Titles of paintings are always tricky, and you try not to repeat previous ones. I thought about this for a minute or two...Rutland Cornfields...Distant Bales...Fireweed Roadsides...but eventually I settled on Bonfire and Cloud Shadows, perhaps to explain the blue smoke in the distance, and the darker stripe across the uncut wheat field.

This one is a view from quite a high aspect near Glaston in my adopted county. The crop in the foreground field had been harvested already, and the radiating lines of the tractor provided perfect 'lead-ins' to the picture, taking the eye on a journey down along the road and up through to the distant barns ans farmhouse.

Because of the small scale of this painting, I painted a great deal of it with my faithful old fan brush worked into the dark shapes of the trees. I also used it to descibe the gorgous pinky-purple of the Rose Bay Willowherb, growing in profusion along the near roadsides in the right.

6 comments:

  1. Just love this, especially the composition, reminds me of a scene up the road from me.
    I was wondering what was the source, photo sketches or life?

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    1. Thank you Jim. For this one, I used a photo I took, displayed on my 24" monitor, with a little artistic licence here and there.

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  2. Hi Peter!
    I found your website just yesterday and I'm really impressed by your work. I'm a landscape photographer with some drawing/painting skills. Usually I don't like realistic works, because they looks a bit like photography, but in the same time missing enough detail, and this fails to "teleport" me into the landscape. However, your work is on another level! I know, that realistic landscape paintings are not well received by the art critique, but your representation of details and especially of the Light is magnificent and really transport me into the scene, just like photography usually do, of course with all the benefits from being painting.
    I have few questions. First - I read that you use some basic color pallet - light cad yellow, permanent rose, cad blue and white. However, I suppose this is not your full pallet as dark values are missing, and maybe the pallet varies with different seasons (your misty and frosty winter scenes are my favorites). Please, may you give some details about your color pallets and their use?
    The second question is - why do you prefer mdf board over canvas?

    Best regards,
    Ivan

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    1. Thanks for your very kind words Ivan, and I'm pleased you like my work!
      Regarding my pallette, depending on how dark the dark values are, I might scrub in the darks first in the underpainting with a mix of Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine Blue or Cobalt Blue, then the rest of the painting is done with varying mixes of the other three colours. The mistier the scene is, the more white is added to the mixes.
      I hope that explains it and thanks again for your interest.

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    2. Thanks for the reply! It looks like really limited pallet. Maybe that's why your colors look so harmonious and natural.

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  3. Me gusta mucho tu trabajo, el color, la composiciĆ³n, me encantan....
    Un saludo. Teresa

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