Walking Thirty Miles With A Sack On His Back

Today was a for landscapes and a day for soft pastels, both of which have been waiting for some action for a while. The subject matter is one of my duly views on Queendown Warren.

My technique for these paintings is now almost second nature to me and should be familiar to any regular readers. I blocked out the main shapes with the sides of pastels by eye, without using a grid. Then I worked from the back of the painting forwards, adding thin layers of whatever colour felt right at the time and smoothing the colour together with fingers, colour shapers, pencil stumps, kitchen paper on fingers, whatever. For the fence posts I needed more accuracy and control, so added them in with charcoal pencils. I tried adding the birds with charcoal pencils too, but the paper was protesting, so I finished them off with pastels. And that was me done.

There a lot about this one that’s from the top drawer. The colours in the sky, the accidental finger mark in the sky that looks like the sun or moon, the trees (especially the biggest one on the left), the colours and texture in the path. These are enough to give me a huge sense of achievement. Is the biggest grassy shape in the bottom right a bit boring, though, despite all the colours? I admit I did add a signature in white pastel just to create some contrast and interest. This one is up for sale, with the price to be found here.

As a special bonus, here’s the painting at an earlier stage. I considered leaving the foreground like this (and adding the fence and birds) but decided that the foreground and background styles were so dissimilar that they didn’t belong together on the same painting. I did, though, end up with the path in that expressive style. And I may have to try out a soft pastel landscape that’s entirely in that style, with little or no colour blending anywhere.