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| 'The wild wood', watercolour on Derwent watercolour paper A4 |
Sunday, 15 July 2012
The wild wood
This one is inspired by recent trips I have made to the local river, in between the showers, sometimes to sketch, sometimes just to sit and look. I prefer to paint from memory rather than from a reference photograph. Everywhere is so lush and green after the rain, although the meadow grass has started to turn yellow and buff in colour. The gloomy rain-filled skies offer little light but are sometimes lightly tinged with beautiful mauves and pinks. I left out much of the foreground and the near and middle distance trees to concentrate on the distant treeline to try to create a feeling of dense woodland filled with light. I used a minimal palette of Maimeri pan paints on a smooth pressed watercolour paper. Happy painting to you all!
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The light in the distant woodland is beautifully painted, Michael! Amazing to paint from memory! Hope the weather improves!
ReplyDeleteThank you Judy! Let's hope the weather does start to improve!
Deletelovely ...i like how you've painted the woods micheal and the way you've suggested the fence
ReplyDeleteHi Jane. Thank you for your lovely comments.
DeleteHi Michael. Great complexity of greens going on here. Lots of subtle changes with so much tone and detail. Great exercise. Laura x
ReplyDeleteHi Laura. Yes, it felt a bit of a 'green fest' ... but I loved doing it :)
DeleteAnd again this is a beautiful painting Michael.
ReplyDeleteYes, the weather is worthless, but you have now also other vistas with deeper colors, wild clouds and sometimes sunshine.
Thank you very much Renske. Worthless - yes, I like that expression. I hope I can start to use a little more blue for the sky soon!
DeleteYou did a great job in creating volume and depth in the background mass of trees - not an easy task at all! I like the nice detail that the fence brings.
ReplyDeleteThank you Blaga. Creating depth is not an easy task. There's a small step from getting it looking convincing and overdoing it and producing mud!
Deleteoh I really really like this Michael - very much - those greens are wonderful, I've been out walking today and with all the rain the landscape is full of all sorts of different shades and tones of green in the hills and forests - the fence line really adds a little something - love how you have done that so subtley, never heard of Maimeri paints, what was in your limited palette if you don't mind me asking?
ReplyDeleteThank you Sharon! Lots of green in the UK now so no excuse for not painting it all ;) It wasn't such a limited palette: For the sky I used W&N Neutral Tint, with a little Ultramarine Deep to give it a sky colour and a little Primary Red Magenta (PV19). For the dark greens I used Cupric Green Light (PG36) with varying amounts of Burnt Umber (best to use true PBr7) and Ultramarine Deep. For the brighter greens (I think) I used Primary Yellow and Cad Yellow Lemon in various mixes with Ultramarine Deep, Cobalt and Cerulean Blue. Phew!
DeleteExcellent work Michael and I love those greens. I'd also like to know what's in your palette. ;-)
ReplyDeleteThank you John. That's a good idea for a blog post ... 'What's in your palette'. Please check out my reply to Sharon above :)
DeleteHi Michael, you have painted a very nice landscape from memory, I like how you have handled the greens and the beautiful clear sky. Have a good week!
ReplyDeleteHi Tito. Thank you very much indeed. Have a good week too. Ciao.
DeleteHola Michael.
ReplyDeleteYou have found a great variety of green. The trees form a lush forest and the light filters through them. I congratulate you because it is not an easy task. Hugs.
Hola Conchi. I always enjoy scenes like this - you can never have too much green in a landscape! Thank you for your lovely comments, they are greatly appreciated :)
DeleteThe tonal contrast does it for me in this one, that and the delicate touch in the brush work. Great stuff!
ReplyDeleteHi Lisa. Thank you for stopping by in what must be a busy time for you. Your comments are really appreciated and mean a lot to me!
DeleteNice work Michael, you've created that effect of "dense woodland filled with light" beautifully.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much, Keith. I'm pleased the effect came across :)
DeleteReally lovely Michael. You have captured the essence of a dense woodland. Yes I agree with Keith, you captured the play of light and love the various shades of green. Michael, thanks again for directing me to Ralph Parkers blog on gouache. It has helped me so much in my studies.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much, Joan. I'm really pleased that this one worked as well as it did! My pleasure to point you to Ralph's blog. He's a really nice guy and I'm sure he will help with any other questions you have about using gouache.
DeleteHello, Rose, and thank you very much for your visit and for your lovely comments of course! Yes, perhaps a chant will make the rain go away - certainly not much chance of 'laughter in the rain' over here at the moment though!
ReplyDeleteHello Michael:) Interesting to see how you use different styles to paint trees. Love your painting. It's a very nice scene! I love the wire wich is the first thing I noticed! Beautiful done. Happy painting to you too!
ReplyDeleteHello Renate and thank you for your lovely comments! The wire fence was one of the last things I did. I used the handle of a brush - a W&N Cotman brush that has a clear acrylic handle, specially designed for scraping out colour.
ReplyDeleteGreen, and green and gr.... beautifully done and great challenge with this color.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much, Lydie. It was a bit of an exercise in green. I'm pleased you like it :)
ReplyDeleteLike this painting. :) I noticed your fence. You must have painted this one very fast to have time to scrape of the colour to make the white fence! As that was the last you did, as you wrote further up. When I scrape it of, it mostly turns to darker lines. Maybe I scrape too early?
ReplyDeleteIt´s quite fun to experience with different greens. I have done that too. Next green experience for me will be to find a bit warmer green colour.
Thank you very much, Catharina! Yes, it was painted quite fast - less than 30mins I would say. As for the scraping out, I often do it too early, and you can see this in the trunks of the trees where some are lighter and some are darker than the surrounding colour! It's all part of the unpredictability of watercolour and I think that it's best to just let it happen! Have fun with the green experience :)
DeleteThis is a lovely painting.
ReplyDeleteSorry for only just seeing this, I'm in Barcelona :)
Thank you very much, Sue. Barcelona is on our list too - enjoy!
DeleteLoving this one Michael. I like the fence and the light sweeping across the field. It looks non fussy and fresh, just as watercolour should :0)
ReplyDeleteThank you very much, Sandra! This was the last full painting I have done for a while ... I must find some time to do more like this soon :)
ReplyDeleteMichael, have missed seeing you and your wonderful paintings. Hoping all is well.
ReplyDeleteYour landscape sketches and paintings are something I admire as I'm the last landscape painter on the planet.. ...BJ
Thank you very much, BJ. I'm the last floral or portrait artist in the world too :)
DeleteThe hardest thing for an artist is to simplify the subject and that is what we have to do. You did a great job with that here.
ReplyDeleteJean
That's very true about simplifying the scene, Jean! Thank you for your comment:)
DeleteThat's very true about simplifying the scene, Jean! Thank you for your comment:)
DeleteMiss your posts! Hope all is well with you. Take care.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Catharina! I've missed being able to post but I have just posted one today. Hope all is well with you too.
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