Artist Studio
In my Friday oil class I painted this painting for them. The focus of the piece is the warm afternoon light on the water and trees, and although I wanted the entire painting to be interesting I wanted to keep the concept simple. I think I accomplished that although I wish I was handling the edges better but time will work that out. Rapphanock River11x14 oil on canvas panel “Rappahannock River”
This painting took me a little more time than I expected but it was worth the effort although it is still not a very good painting. I scraped a lot of the darks back to tinted canvas using a palette knife and it really helps with the color harmony and a unity of surface inside the transparent darks. I like the dark areas, and some of the grass in the foreground and in both of these areas I really worked at modifying the surface by lightly scraping the color back and then reapplying more color on top. I saw this technique demonstrated by a fabulous oil painter Roger Dale Brown and it has caused a big change in how I approach the initial phases of my oils.
All you need to know about using a small rigger and round brush for painting wonderful trees.
This painting was painted outdoors on the top of a mountain looking out across the shenandoah valley. The sun was really strong and the trees and hills and valley all merged into one flat nothing. I painted color, and texture and overlapping shapes and gave it my best shot.
I am not sold on the main cow in the front but at least it doesn’t look like an anteater.