And They Never Went Further, No, They Never Went Back

More plein air practice with the soft pastels today. I really should paint some plein air buildings at some point but didn’t have the time to think about where to go today so headed out to Queendown Warren to paint a natural landscape. I picked a spot with n interesting view, some much needed shade and a bench and got to work. My main objective today was to make one particular field the star the show, with bright yellows and oranges. Lesser objectives were to have a couple more bright fields in the distance and to give the impression of depth by using fainter marks on the far side of the valley, much as I did a couple of days ago.

As usual, I worked from the back to the front, applying layers as thinly as possible and not holding back on the impressionistic colours. The big mass of trees in the top right gave me the most trouble. I put down a lot of layers of colour, ending up with something that looked pretty muddy. And the tooth of the paper was kind of full but not full. Like me when I’m absolutely stuffed and the vienetta comes out, the paper was refusing to accept any more pigment from some pastels but was happy to keep taking more in from others. And that was weird.

By the time I was about two thirds of the way down the paper, I thought this was going to be a huge failure. I stood up, took the painting off the easel (which was in the shade), propped it up against some broken branches in the sunlight and took a step back. And I was shocked at the difference that the light made. The painting was perfectly fine, with even the muddy tree shape looking acceptable. This is a lesson to remember, not just about evaluating at my own paintings in the sun, but also about moving my easel from the shade into the sun of I’m a wildcard on LAOTY and the judges are having a walkaround.

With renewed confidence, I added in the foreground. I decided to include the fence. The wires in the fence were stalled on with a long sharp edge of one of my white pastels and look good. I added on my usual multicoloured grasses, this time radiating out from the bottom right corner to balance the painting. And that was me done.

I’ve ended up with something with interesting colours and interesting shapes but lacking depth. In that respect, it’s almost as much an abstract as it is a landscape. But it is personal and that has to count for something. It’s up for sale, with the price to be found here.