Sunday, July 11, 2010

Breaking the second brush stroke habit


Skaha Bluff Trail SOLD
8 x 10
oil on canvas panel

This scene is of a conservation area overlooking Skaha Lake and it is absolutely stunning with sage brush, wildflowers and beautiful rock formations. If you get lucky you may see some mountain sheep. Sitting out in the sun in the middle of a 35 degree day made it necessary to just block in some values and hues and head home for the finishing up but this was basically just an exercise in putting down one brushstroke and then reloading the brush and planning before putting down the next. I often find that I dab away and have to wipe off brush strokes that pick up unwanted paint and most often it is the second brushstroke that does it so I am determined to quit that habit. Something else to work on is deciding whether the shadows will be cool or warm and I battled back and forth on this. Another challenge was pushing the distant trees back. So much learning from one little plein air piece.