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Mountain Heath - 42" X 42" (106cm X 106cm) - OOC
This is our mountain, Kunanyi, in summer. The low cloud cast a shadow, but small breaks in the cloud weakly lit some areas such as the ridge and bushes at left and front center. And the land beneath the mountain and the distant coast was in sunshine. So although it's a bit dull in parts I thought there was enough light and color to make a painting of it.
I wanted to paint this because I like the way the bushes up on the mountain form cushion shapes that create paths for the eye to follow. In winter they are buried in thick snow so that you don't realize the bushes are there. You can walk over their tops.
This is a large painting. It took about a week to paint, which is fast for me. The photo was taken at night and the color is not the best but it gives an idea of the painting. I played around with it in Affinity Photo but I probably made it worse. I'll take it outside tomorrow and photograph it in sunshine.
Anyway, I got the canvas covered tonight so thought I'd ask for feedback. All comments/critiques/suggestions gratefully accepted.
Rob
Comments
Superlative.
Love the light in the distance.
Only thing I am not entirely sure of, and not sure if it would be better or worse without; is the far left bottom corner bush and trunks. Perhaps because the 2 are together and there is no daylight between, they just seem a bit.....?....affected?...Not sure, and not sure that they are not actually a good thing to have in that spot. What do I know?; I know nuthink.
Those trunks at lower left are really there, but may be I should make them less prominent. I'll play around with it in Affinity to see if I can rearrange things.
Thanks for your comments.
My favourite part. Seeing the background through the foreground.
Did you do a bush at a time? Or stick with a particular colour and find it in the landscape?
@heartofengland, I worked from an image I developed in Affinity Photo. I used my tablet screen for color and printed photos for form. I painted each bush separately because, although they look green from a distance, there is a lot of variation in colour, especially in the foreground bushes - there are flecks of green, red, orange, yellow, violet and white. Here are some close ups that shows the different colors in the bushes:
I sketch just a few lines to show me where the edges of bushes are. I lay down a very dark violet to begin with and then paint progressively lighter strokes on top. For all the details in this one I used fluid paint and soft, pointed sables (synthetic and natural). They seem to stand up pretty well to the dabbing treatment providing you're gentle with them. The sky was painted with large (No. 12) flat bristle brushes.
Your comment about the drop off into the distance makes me happy. I'm glad it comes across because it is one of the things that made me want to paint this scene.
A triptych - that's not a bad idea. Three this size would be a massive undertaking but it would be worth considering for one of the big landscape competitions. This one could be the center piece and on each side there would more rocky landforms which is what is actually there. I'm going to keep the idea in mind.
Fantastic work Rob,
I love the ebb and flow of those undulating branches and you have captured the haze of the distance wonderfully.
Like the above comments one of my favourite parts is that little foreground sprig poking up.
My other idea would be to make the small green hill and the futher away part of the stone cliff a little bit bluer as it recedes to push the atmospheric perspective a little bit and ease the transition from foreground and background a bit.
@Abstraction, I love Douglas Adams but in art a tetraptych doesn't do much for me.
@StephanHM, thanks for those ideas. I like them and will use them.
Yes, it is less than a kilometer SSW of the lookout which is to the left (NNE) of this view. If you turned 90 degrees left you would see the lookout with Hobart below.
I'm retired so I can devote all my time to painting. If I were still working I wouldn't be able to do them so fast.
Yes, Tasmania is a beautiful island - there's lots of subject matter to choose from.
For this painting I used Titanium white, Dioxazine violet, Ultramarine and Prussian blue, Cobalt teal, Arylide yellow, Yellow oxide, Red oxide, Quinacridone crimson, Cadmium orange, Chromium green, Phthalo green.
I neutralized the Dioxazine violet with yellow to make the darks underlying all the bushes. On top of this I painted all the branches and foliage. I used sable brushes and resorted to abstraction to paint the leaves - they're mainly just little dots of green, yellow, orange, red and white that look like foliage with a bit of distance. I couldn't paint each actual leaf on all those bushes. I'd go insane. Or get more insane, lol. The sky was done quickly with big (No. 12) flat hog bristle brushes and the distant land and sea with smaller flats.
I've been painting for about 7 years. I needed something to keep me grounded in retirement. I'm happy that you like the painting.