Oil Painting Step-by-step Nov. 2014

Last month I drove south from La Veta to a scenic area about halfway to Cuchara to take pictures of the brilliant yellow aspens. One of my pictures was almost perfect to recreate unaltered into an oil painting. Usually I have to use between 4-8 pictures to compose a painting. In this case I used one for the basis of the composition and a 2nd picture to better define the details of the West Spanish Peak. Here are the photos I used:

I began the painting by toning it with raw umber, then using a cotton rag with some mineral spirits to wipe away the lightest elements in the composition. I added contrasting areas with diluted raw umber paint on a brush. I looked at the photos for guidance.

Then I began adding the local colors.

I worked on the details of the West Spanish Peak.

Then began to focus on the closer evergreen trees, the aspen trees, the colorful shrubs in the distance and the distant evergreen trees.

I continued to work on refining the values, colors, and details. I also focused on the foreground grasses.

I did more work on the cloud and the distant shrubs, plus I  refined the values and colors on the Peak, to complete the oil painting, "View from Dakota Wall Ranch" 12"x16". On display at the Spanish Peaks Arts Council in the Gift of Art Show, Nov. 9, 2014 - Jan.3, 2015.

New paintings for Fall Show

I've completed 2 new watercolors for the upcoming Fall Show at SPACe. We will be hanging the show this Saturday afternoon, with an opening reception Sat. Aug. 30. Here is one of them.

Dakota Wall in Fall

New Spanish Peaks paintings

This summer I have been focusing on doing more paintings of the Spanish Peaks. I've done a couple small, 5"x7" oils and a 12"x16". This is one of the 5"x7". "Huajatolla Landscape".

This is the other one "View of the West Spanish Peak"

This is a 12"x16" oil painting "View of the Spanish Peaks"

Developing "Wahatoya Homestead"

I began this painting a little differently than I usually do, by sketching with a brush to determine the main shapes. Usually I tone the painting support with a thin color and wipe off the lightest areas, gradually adding values to create the composition. This one is done on a 12" x 16" gessoed panel. I used the principal of thirds to place the rock wall in the composition. This is the reference photo I used for this painting I began adding the local colors and working on patterns of color for the foreground, hoping to lead toward the barn and then on up to the rock wall. More work on the foreground. I decided to add some yellow wildflowers that are common in this area in the spring. Next I worked on extending a dark value pattern from the left edge down to the bottom of the painting. Once I set the patterns, I worked on developing bushes and shrubs. I also worked on the barn and was not satisfied with it. More work on the barn.... as well as the middle ground foliage The barn grew... After much fiddling with the barn, I decided to draw what I wanted, from a photo, that I had to flop. My barn had grown too tall after working with it so much and it needed to be smaller. Here are pictures of this process: I did a sketch of the barn on tracing paper to get the size right. The photo clipped to the painting is my reference photo. Then I used the sketch as a reference to sketch the new barn, with a brush, over the old barn.

This is during the process of creating the new barn, working with the background to eliminate the old barn.

This is my finished painting, "Wahatoya Homestead"

Welcome to my blog

This is the initial sketch of an oil painting I'm currently working on. I began painting with indigo on a gessoed hardboard, from several photos of a specific location. In my photos, there wasn't much in the foreground, so my challenge was to create an interesting foreground that would develop the painting into an interesting composition. I began with a monochromatic sketch so I could concentrate on values.

The second day, I began adding color, working to retain the value pattern I established in the original sketch. Getting some ideas from the actual landscape, I began to develop an midground of native pinon trees and scrub oaks. I thought I'd try some old worn fenceposts in the near ground, with more shrubs, and grasses.

The next sessions involved developing the colors. I decided it was too blue and began to warm up the mountain slopes with some greenish hues, as well as purples.

Now I am at the point of deciding how much more I should do!

After taking a break from this painting, to work on others, as well as to put up a show at the local Ryus Ave. Bakery, I worked some more on the details and composition. I worked on the values of the middle ground trees, the grass & flowers in the foreground and the scrub oaks. Now I'm letting it rest some more before I decide whether it's finished.