Hello World.
This post is just to let you know that I am having a bit of a tidy-up of my social media . I am moving this blog to my website which can be found at https://richpaintsoils.co.uk/blog-new/.
This will mean one less password for me to remember, and hopefully better and more frequent posts.
Landscape painters cannot avoid trees. That is true even here in Cambridgeshire, which probably has fewer trees than anywhere in England. A noble isolated oak, willows by a slow moving river or clumps of birch and alders in wetland are all classic motifs. They have been painted so often by great artists it is easy only to see them as others have.
Whilst there may be relatively few trees in Cambridgeshire they are essential in providing what may be the only vertical accents in views dominated by horizontals. The few ancient woods also provide the opportunity to shelter from that cold East wind when painting outside during the winter!
I was mindful to think about trees because saw that it was National Tree Week here in the UK, not that I guess anyone would know. It also reminded me of this book The Artistic Anatomy of Trees – over 400 pages on painting trees. Not a book to read from cover to cover but an essential reference for any landscape artist.
When I moved to Cambridgeshire twenty years ago I worried that the lack of trees would restrict my choice of painting locations, and it probably did for the first few years. However now when I occasionally travel to other counties, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire and Rutland, in search of more obviously picturesque landscape I find a different problem. The trees get in the way of the view.
Weather forecast says light cloud – but it still looks dark and gloomy out there. I have spent the morning in the studio working up compositions from colour sketches, drawings and photos. If the composition is right the painting will almost “paint itself”. If not I have often resorted to sawing bits off the panel until it works. These paintings have all had this treatment!
Looking at these images I notice that the camera is often not very forgiving. There are a few edges than need softening – something I’ll watch out for in the future.
Summer is fading fast but it just means Autumn is on the way, my favorite time of year. I have been out catching the last of the wheatfields.
I have also taken the opportunity to improve the photos I take of my paintings. I just use a point and shoot camera. Setting them outside at right angles to the sun makes a difference in my opinion.
I paint most days but every few months there are times when it seems a challenge. Normally it is not because I don’t want to, but because I convince myself that I cannot do it. I should prehaps let you be the judge of that. I have two strategies to get going again that tend to work. One is to go for a walk along our local river during the evening Golden Hour before sunset, the other being to pick up my copy of John Carlson’s excellent book, Guide to Landscape Painting . Recently doing the latter I noticed his comments regarding the importance of shapes and edges when conveying the nature of objects. Whilst not claiming to reach his standard I decided to try painting some tree without thinking or painting any leaves – just thinking about Carlson’s advice. I was pleased with the result, and the speed at which the painting progressed. I notice in the photo that some of the dark shapes appear to “jump-out” which may the the photography, or may be something for me to review. I am now keen to get outside and try the same when plein air painting.
Out this afternoon painting wheatfields before the farmer crops them. I think it will make a good basis for a larger studio painting. I can play around with light and darks on the ground caused by the clouds.
In the photo the bug stuck in the sky proves it was really plein air
Here is the view with my messy disorganised palette
It was a dull day yesterday so decided to do a quick sketch in the garden rather than go out. Good practise in sorting out closely spaced tones. The warm colour in the foreground is burnt grass from the heatwave a few weeks ago.
I have been thinking whether I should varnish my paintings. It appears not to be fashionable these days, maybe because the Impressionists tended not to varnish their paintings. There are practical considerations as well because you have to wait about an year until the paint is totally dry before applying the varnish. An alternative is to use an alkyd based painting such as Liquin or medium. I have tried this in the past, mainly as they are fast drying. I now rarely use them as I don’t like the rubbery feel they give to the paint, and cleaning brushes becomes much more difficult.
As an alternative I am going to try a tradition medium knowm as VTO, standing for varnish, turps and oil. This is my standard medium of turp plus stand-oil, but with damar varnish added. This is meant to give a slight gloss to the finished painting. My bottle of varnish arrived yesterday so I can give it a go today.
Slowing getting back into the swing of standing in fields waving my brushes about. This one was at my default painting spot that I can walk to in 20mins. Just tree, water and sky but it changes every day
Long time since last post – not stopped painting but “stuff” gets in the way of the blog and painitng outside. Working from home due to Covid-19 and spending 10 hours at the computer is not conducive to wanting to spend more time at a screen. Anyway getting out a bit more now and enjoying the experience. Doing lost of quick sketches concentating on tones, and enjoying overcast early mornings before the hot sun arrives. I was waving my brushes around near a farm near Woodwalton and the farmer pulled up. I feared the worst – but actually he asked if I was prepared to do some paintings for him on parts of his farm that were not accessble to the public. That is a good aspect of painting on location. 
One of the challenges are the flies and bugs that are attracted to wet paint. The trick is not to try and remove them, but to wait for the paint to dry when they can easily be flicked off.
I am off work this week so planning to go out every day with the paints. As the week has gone on the heat and the dust as gradually bleached out all the colours. I have never been to the South of France but I assume the air is much clearer so the colours remain.
The photo below is one I did early morning before the the sun really came up. I could not find any shade to paint the second one so the colours are a bit out. However as a bonus I met the famer who kindly gave me permission to paint elsewhere on his land. Appreciated!
richpaintsoils 