Began this yesterday AM, at about 7:00, and am now a couple hours into it.
untitled 12 x 16″ oil
It’s surprisingly one of the most constantly transitioning subjects I’ve ever painted, which is odd because all of the shapes are as stable as they come. One would imagine I might claim that about the ocean, which certainly doesn’t sit still, but this mountain takes the prize. It’s the light and color that is absolutely schiz-o from one minute to the next.
Anyway, I find it as challenging as can be to find the color notes. Because of the difficulty, I again find myself experimenting with a method of organizing my color mixing…creating a large middle tone for for an area I wish to paint (say the mountain) and bring touches of color around this base that can be dragged into it (scrambled a bit); light from above the mixture, dark from below the mixture, warm from the right side, cool from the left. It’s a game, but The Idea is to be systematic in adjusting the values and temperatures, which I find gets me using more paint (a good thing for me), and hopefully lends a more decisive and cleaner look to the painting.
This is the idea, if you can make any sense of it:
The painting surface is one of my beloved homemade lead-primed panels, and it’s perfect for the kind of painting I’m doing, which is tiled-on notes with straight paint over a warm wash.
Can’t wait for tomorrow A.M. to get cracking on this again.
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