I wasn’t very good at painting and not that committed to improving. I would have…
The Day Ends, Springfield, Virginia
This one was inspired from a Facebook post that I saw only four hours ago of a sunset in Springfield, Virginia. It looks nothing like the original photo, which had loads of gorgeous red clouds in the sky. Still, I’m not a realistic painter so I’m not that bothered whether it looks like the original photo as long as the final painting looks good either to me or to someone that might buy it.
Needless to say, most of this painting used just three primary colours: Indian yellow, French ultramarine and quinacridone magenta – three colours that form a great power trio. There’s also some raw sienna (to avoid white bits in some spots where I left empty paper but which have since disappeared) and some cadmium red in an attempt to get some RED in the sky.
I’m happy with this one. I suspect that I’d be happier if it wasn’t for Sunshine Through The Brambles three weeks ago, which used the same colours but ended up looking better. One thing this one has that Sunshine… didn’t is a foreground. I think the foreground here worked out OK. It uses just the three primaries (which didn’t turn to mud because they’re all transparent – thank you Hazel Soan!) and has come out nice and hazy. I used one of those special Terry Harrison brushes to flick up some grass in lots of places. I waited to do this until the paint was nearly dry and used it to emphasise some little hillocks bits that were starting to accidentally appear as the paint dried. I also couldn’t resist a bit of splattering, with a mix of the three primaries in the tree and sky and with Indian yellow in the foreground.
This one is up for sale. To see the price, click here.
No abstract experiment today with acrylic inks because I’m out of granulation medium.
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