A Moving Scene

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

In advance of writing an article on The Artist’s Road about my painting process for developing this image, I thought I’d share my painting progress so far. This small study is in oil, on oil-primed linen canvas, 12 x 24”.

My block-in was painted over an oil crayon cartoon like a watercolor, in thin oil. I chose a crayon color which I could also dissolve here and there for very light values. I established large masses, and approximate values and color tones, leaving the white of the canvas where needed.

Working light to dark and translucent to opaque with lightly thinned oil, I built middle values and shapes in the sky, aiming for the finished effect, alla prima.

My progress today involved “resting” the sky until it dried more and working to build color and value in the landscape, background to foreground. Missing are rows of overlapping tree lines which also must wait for the wet paint to set-up over night before painting in.

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