This is the oil painting I've been toiling over - well, sometimes toiling and sometimes not. I intended for it to be an abstract sort of landscape, using a photo of a river scene as a base, but I wanted it to not be obviously representative, but to suggest a mood, movement, events possible or pending or past... [oil on canvas 102 x 50 cm]
First I laid down colour glazes, vague shapes. Please note this is not a 'how to' lesson - This is me fumbling around in the world of oilsThe second stage is closest to the original reference and it reads as hills, sky, water, reeds etc, which I wanted to subdue,
so I turned it upside down to work on further. I like the way the reeds now look more like flames
The trouble is when to stop with this - I think I could go on endlessly painting, layering, scraping and scumbling and it could metamorphose into something completely different. I'm thinking now that the colours are too close to landscape colours - and too pretty. Hmm - shall I let rip with some cadmium orange..?
Gosh. The first version I uploaded of this image was in CMYK instead of RGB colour profile and this is how it appeared... one doesn't have to let rip, one can just fiddle endlessly with colour effects on the computer!
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9 comments:
Fantastic dreamlike work. I loved to sed the process. Love your all works, very delicate and lyric watercolor too!
Wow Cathy, this is fantastic! Love the blues and greens and the ripple of the water.
Thanks BH, and for coming over to visit. This is quite a different approach for me, very far from Urban Sketching!
Thanks so much Liz - think I will live with it for a while to see if its finished...
I think you have perfectly achieve your goal! There is mood, atmosphere and it makes one wander and wonder and dream... Beautiful!!
This is coming along beautifully! Really wonderful to see such a change. You must know that I'd love it. I'm mostly here to say that I'm sorry to have been out of touch for so long. My blogging visitation these days is catch as catch can because of my non-blogging schedule. Your poor dikkop post is remarkable. Also enjoyed the sculpture gallery post. Hope you're well. Will not be such a stranger. Cheers till next time.
Cathy, thanks very much for the assuring words - it's hard for me to see if it has or not yet!
Suzanne, hi, great to see you back. No need to apologise, though of course you are missed! I didn't consciously think of your work when I was doing this, but I'm absolutely sure it influenced me. I would value any criticism/suggestion you have as to where to go from here if you have any thoughts...
Isn't it amazing what the computer can do with colours! I like your first painting as well as seeing the whole process. It is one of my art enemies..STOP! And I actually think we can stop much sooner than we think we can.
So nice seeing you working these oils!
Ronell
Oh, this is so beautiful and so much like a dream....I'd say it's done as is. Seeing the change in palette via the computer, you could do another in the warmer color scheme, if you wanted to...but sounds like you have little time right now. Loved the sketches!
I love this! So soft and evocative. Beautiful colors.... you'll have oils down pat in no time!
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