I study ground fog, have ever since I discovered it in a back field behind my studio. The cool mornings occasionally set off a bizarre light show here every spring. I have more than a few plein air and studio paintings trying to capture it too! However, something that developed quickly from it was changing the field setting to a more interesting setting like Venice.......add a horse a few more trees, anything beyond a bare field.
It's spring and my original Sunday studio plan was to do a Virginia Beach seascape and spruce it up a bit by adding a dramatic atmosphere the reference lacked (below). The atmospheric reference below was from such a morning on the Delaware River during a plein air event. That morning with my camera turned out to be the best 15 minutes of my week long trip.
The paint and chat sorta drove the session to a demo on atmosphere and I completely forgot about the seascape. All together, the perfect situation, because everyone was engaged in the process. I'm not sure the painting fared so well..... After a few hours my energy faded - in my book, time to stop!
END OF 2 1/2 - HOUR SESSION
I retrieved the demo the following day with the intention of doing a little home study on it. I was not happy with the sun.
It's spring and my original Sunday studio plan was to do a Virginia Beach seascape and spruce it up a bit by adding a dramatic atmosphere the reference lacked (below). The atmospheric reference below was from such a morning on the Delaware River during a plein air event. That morning with my camera turned out to be the best 15 minutes of my week long trip.
The paint and chat sorta drove the session to a demo on atmosphere and I completely forgot about the seascape. All together, the perfect situation, because everyone was engaged in the process. I'm not sure the painting fared so well..... After a few hours my energy faded - in my book, time to stop!
SUNDAY CROSSROADS STUDIO
END OF 2 1/2 - HOUR SESSION
The Golden Hour 20x24 oil on linen (3-21-16 canvas 1030)
I retrieved the demo the following day with the intention of doing a little home study on it. I was not happy with the sun.
BACK IN STUDIO
UNDER NATURAL LIGHT
The details below show how effective adding a clearer blue to contrast off the warmer gray blue, and yellow amps up the 3D effect.
Floating creams and clean blue over darker tones allows the eye to follow sunlight down. Here it's accomplished with expressive brushwork - much easier when there is lots of wet paint on the canvas. Basically the canvas was turned into a pallette swimming with wet paint.
SECOND SESSION AND A NEW SIGNATURE
The sun never really cooperated Sunday - so I decided to go another round
with it the other day. Well...as it sometimes goes, lots of paint and
reshaping developed, and a few hours later almost a repaint. But, the added punctuation was worth it even tho I lost some effects I rather liked. The sun works better for me now which for me became the challenge from the very start and why I went back in.
DETAILS
At 30 feet some of the intense colours that show up here in the details soften down dramatically.
FRAMED AND READY TO GO
OVER EASTER HOLIDAY
My original idea was still intriguing and worth a larger studio canvas. I had a 30x30 canvas and 4 days to play with it before my next Sunday Crossroads studio.
Golden Hour 30x30 oil on linen (4-1-16 canvas 1031)
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