Golden Glow and a January update

16 January 2022 16 January 2022

I really cannot get over how fast time is going! Christmas came and went and it’s now mid-January! I’ve been working primarily on a large oil painting – Golden Glow, along with several poured watercolours.

Golden Glow was a labour of love. I found the degree of detail in the treeline to be almost daunting initially. I studied my reference photos for a long time before I actually started. I wanted to ensure the painting was fresh and organic and I tried not to make it too formal. In preparation for this painting, I did a number of Plein Air studies in the Hampton area and also did a study in my studio from the selected reference photo.

The studio study video is below. I think it lots of fun, take a minute to take a look:

Lesson Learned

I am on a learning journey with my painting and feel that my work is evolving as a result. I find satisfaction in discovery and approach each new piece looking for the opportunity to explore something new.

Maybe a BIG mistake

Looking back at my watercolour days I have always held a reverence for yellow or maybe it’s a fear of. It’s almost impossible to cover. But it is how yellow influences the subsequent paint applications that you have to be aware of – or beware of! It’s almost impossible to tame or cover. And yet, that beautiful sunny colour is so tempting.

With this painting, I toned the canvas with transparent gold then did an underpainting in shades of sienna, transparent red and yellow knowing I wanted to capture the beautiful Golden Glow that only seems to appear in the late autumn. The blue of the sky painted on beautifully. It was in the foliage that I had to pay attention to. This painting is almost all foliage. Omigoodness.

Anyway I persevered and kept working. I am very happy with the completed piece. Funny, I have been working on this for weeks. One day I looked up and I realized that there was no place left wanting paint. I got really emotional and almost cried. It took me over an hour to recover. That weird anti-climatic experience that you get when you wrap up a project that consumed you – in a good way of course.

January is for Poured Watercolours

And pour I did. I had so many reference photos that I was fortunate to have been able to take a few years ago while travelling in South Africa. With being in lockdown once again, I thought it was the perfect time to get working on them.

Atlas

Titan

Daisy Daze

Board Games

Zephyr

Lessons Learned:

Sap Green stains absolutely. It will stain your paper. It will stain your clothes. It will stain your hands. If you get it on your hands they will be green for a few days. Especially this time of the year when your skin is dry!
Masking compound or gum or frisket is permanent on fabric. This means your clothes!
The bin that you use to capture the run off paint while pouring needs to be longer than your painting for obvious reasons. I say this because mine is not. As a result, I spent a lot of time wiping up my counters and the floor. Have I mentioned that SAP Green STAINS everything? Floor included.
Granulating pigments really do not pour well. I thought it was a good idea to add texture on the elephant painting but it has a flattening quality. And that’s why there are two elephant paintings. Atlas is painting with my typical pouring process. TItan is embellished with Micron fine point permanent marker! The gramulating pigment somehow covered all my pencil lines – I literally was unable to see any of them. Not good – you need a road map when pouring. At least I do. I got too far along to abandon it even though I started over with a second one.
And finally, the yellow thing as described above. I’ll spare you by not repeating the rant!