Friday, September 05, 2008

The Napanee River At Newbourgh 24"x 30" O/C

It seems to me that it has been awhile since I painted a larger canvas than usual. The usual being in the 10 x 12, 11 x 14 range. The bare canvas first seemed intimidating when I stepped back from the easel for a quick look.
The painting started of with a sunny day and as bad luck would have it, the sun went into hiding from time to time.. So much for shadows !
As I prepared my usual limited palette, I soon realized that I had brought the wrong paintbox and as a result had to deal with a small palette for mixing and as it turned out, a real hindrance when it came to mixing colour for a larger canvas. Lesson learned, again.
The painting was "Alla Prima" and painted from life. The above photo is an enlargement from the photo of the original painting. This photo shows the texture and brush strokes of that area of the painting. Some adjustments were done to correct what I felt were 'wrong values' in the background. These were done the day following the actual painting of the scene. This allowed me to be able to work 'wet in wet' in most areas of the background.

This photograph is of the scene that I painted and my canvas may be seen on the right. And, wouldn't you know it. The sun comes out for the picture.. :- ) ..Typical !

'til next.

5 comments:

Jack Riddle said...

Frank--this is a nice piece and thanks for explaining your approach to it. Very helpful to me--i struggle with wet-on-wet a bit.

Anonymous said...

Jack, Thank you for commenting.I am glad that I could help.
I did not mention in my blog that I had to wade to my painting spot, wearing rubber boots and dragging my "stuff" in a small cart. ..Just to mention painting "wet on wet". (lol) The locals must have thought me strange at least.

Take care.

Keith Tilley said...

Hello Frank, how are you doing?

I like the water in this one. There's a nice sense of movement and well-observed colour.

Anonymous said...

Howdy,Keith

All is going well. Thanks for asking.
Thanks for your comment, appreciate it.
I have changed a number of things in this painting after liviing with it a few days.(the water remains the same):-) I took it and twenty four other pieces to my gallery this past week. Big open house coming up .

Take care..

Anonymous said...

Sorry Keith.. I do not know who that "Anonymous" guy is. Must have punched the wrong button.. :-)