Mountains, in oils

When the assignment to paint a landscape or nature painting arrived, I thought at once of two places - Gotland and Scotland. Therefore, I duly painted both.
The first painting to be started on and finished, is an oil painting on a 38x46 cm (or F8) canvas on a frame. The reference photo was irresistible, providing me with challenges as well as speaking to some of my strengths.
I started out by sketching the outlines, managing reasonably well, and then began by painting the mountains roughly. I couldn't resist spending quite some time on them, before moving on to the grasses. A lot of raw umber and ochre colours were used. The sky was what I painted last, technically at least - I then went back and touched up both here and there, first and foremost in the area of the dark hills that actually had, as I noticed, a few flecks of sunlight in spots I hadn't hitherto noticed. And so it was out with the ochre again, and both working in almost-dried paint, and drybrushing.
I allowed this painting to dry for a few days during one stage, and left it alone for short periods of time too. I do love working wet in wet, but it needed to be left to dry for some details.
I am very pleased with the snow on the mountains, but it was very tricky to get the snow amongst the grass quite right. The photo doesn't do the painting justice, even if it does manage to catche some of the suble colour change in the sky, for example.

The reference photo is of the mountains of An Teallach (meaning, most likely, "Forge" or perhaps "Anvil" in Scots Gaelic), in Dundonell, in Scotland. They are very beautiful.

But this painting does not end there, I'm afraid. As I painted, I knew I wanted to incorporate something of a slightly more fantasy nature, and indeed, it would have felt unfinished had I neglected to do so. So there, in the left side of the painting, there is a someone and a horse, walking along.
Therefore, the painting is called what it is called - "Ered Luin, or An Teallach with a visitor." For what would that pointy-hatted old man do there, in Scotland? Not that I'd mind meeting him, of course.
The Ered Luin are also known as the Blue Mountains, and once stood east of Beleriand, though where that lay is now only the sea. Instead, we must look to the east of the Ered Luin, and notice, perhaps, the river Lhûin which flows into the sea at the Grey Havens, Mithlond.

"Even as the first shadows were felt in the Mirkwood there appeared in the west of Middle-Earth the Istari, whom Men called the Wizards. None knew at that time whence they came, save Círdan of the Havens, and only to Elrond and to Galadriel did he reveal that they came over the Sea." ("The Silmarillion", J.R.R. Tolkien, p 359)

And so, the parallell was an easy one to draw upon. But most of all, I am plain happy with a very good nature painting, which conveys some of the incredible beauty of a land I love.

An oil painting long in the making

This oil painting was long in the making because of that which so often happens - life. It was near finished when something interrupted, and then had to wait for two weeks until I could give it the last few hours it needed. It might have taken anything between fifteen to twenty hours to paint, I am not certain.
For the background, I chose a photo of the Grampian mountains in Aberdeenshire, with a view that, on a clear day, allows you to see as far as out to sea. I thank Yiling Wang, my friend on that particular roadtrip, for her help in taking that photo. From it I used the background colours and the general proportions of the lady, but not the lady herself. She is from my imagination only.
I especially liked painting the dress, and the lower part thereof. I am not entirely happy with the area around her bust, but I had been working on it for too long, and decided I needed to let it be and work on something else. The hair, also, was a joy to paint. I have never tried making hair quite as detailed with oils.

In conclusion, I am happy with the painting and I think it shows that I have progressed in my painting, when I compare it to other paintings. There is still a long way to go to make it as photorealistic as I would like it, but that is what practice is for. I am, however, not entirely happy with the picture you see here - I had to opt for a somewhat reddish-grey tint to the originally white sky, in order for the photo to better reflect the true colour of the dress and the stone wall. I suppose I shall learn how to fix that in Photoshop, but for now, it is not too important.

The painting is called "Grampian Sidhe", after the mountain itself, and after the Gaelic word for Fair Folk (please note that this is what she is - not a fairy, the diminutive), or elf.

What do you like the best with the painting? What do you think could have been done even better?

An Expressionist Dunstaffnage Castle

For my second painting in the Expressionist style, I looked at the artist Gabriele Münter, and noticed how many of her paintings are of houses on hills, and the like. I thought of a picture I took maybe half an hour before the photo reference I used in the last picture, one of Dunstaffnage Castle itself. It was autumn when I visited the place with my friend, but as it turned out, that didn't have a strong enough impression on me when I chose to paint it, and so, it doesn't look much like any season at all. Maybe like early autumn.
An important point about Expressionist painting is that it's not a painting of the artists impression, but one of their own expression. Their inner feelings and emotions about the scene before them, rather than their impression of it.
I always liked castles and ruins, and their diversity fascinate me. I am also an archaeologist, and I had my reasons for wanting to become that. Castles and ruins give different impressions - some are sad, mournful, even desperate and I'd like nothing more than to restore them to their original glory. Some seem not to give the slightest bit of care to the fact that they are crumbling, and stand proud and intimidating still.

Dunstaffnage struck me as a bit of both, but mostly as a very impressive castle built well and with good defensive strategy. I painted this on a fairly large canvas, F8 in size, with acrylics. It took a few sittings and several hours. I had the fortune of having good natural light as well as a lamp, though after painting in the evening, I went back and re-did the grass because it looked too garishly yellow-green. The sky had bit of a touch-up as well. The odd yellow blob to the right side was a tree with autumn leaves. Oddly enough, without meaning to, it gives something of a depth to the painting.
There was also something mystical about the castle, about its strong walls and odd angles, and what with everything we found around it, and how magical the entire journey was, I couldn't resist painting something in that picture that's usually relegated firmly to outside the fine art galleries. The clue is in the name of the painting, "Clouds over Dunstaffnage Castle".

This was the first painting since the course began that I gave away. Feels odd not to have it at home, but it was a late birthday gift for the friend with whom I shared the trip.

An attempt at Expressionism

I have, when let loose, a tendency to draw and paint with lots of tiny details and small areas of paint. This course has been a real good thing for me as it forces me to paint differently. During five weeks (or somesuch) our assignment is to write about and paint in the Expressionist style. This is rather tricky - it's a very much-encompassing title, but in short it is about expressing feelings. Subjective feelings rather than objectively painting reality, and moving away from exact, naturalistic portrayal of things in favour of emotions and the artist's own expression.
Part of this particular assignment was to paint on a 50x60 (or F12) size canvas. When I saw in reality the size of it, I realised, wide-eyed, that this would really be something else for me. It was, I must admit, a complete and utter joy to paint! I chose, after a long thought, a photograph taken on my journey around Scotland last autumn, north of Oban, by Dunstaffnage Castle, looking out across to Isle of Mull, I think. There was something about how I felt when the photo was taken, and how I feel looking at it, that I tried to get across. I also bought a very large paintbrush - possibly size 24 or somesuch - to help with the really large areas. I looked long and hard at a few Expressionist paintings, such as those of Gabriele Münter, and then set to work.
I used acrylics, and it took at least four hours. I didn't time it. The first picture is the finished painting, the second is what it looked like after I painted the outlines with black paint, and then started colouring some of the larger areas. I tend to go for large areas first, something I picked up while painting miniatures. This time, I really wish I could show the painting to you in real life, because the photo doesn't do it justice - size wise, colour wise and so on.
In conclusion, I am very, very proud of my achievement this time. If it pleases you, feel welcome to comment, and also about the feeling it evokes inside you, if you wish!

First time with oils

This post will be updated and made better shortly. However, I thought it prudent to show to you my latest project. Edit: There, done.

The instructions were to paint an oil painting in impressionist style. Later, the instructions changed, to, "use your favourite Impressionist painter as inspiration", however by then, I had already done my painting and had no opportunities to do another one within the timeframe given.
I chose to use a photo I seem to return to again and again. It is taken of the MacLeod's stone on Isle of Harris, in the Hebrides, Scotland. There are many photos of that stone, but this particular one seems to speak of me not only of timelessness, eternity, but also that there could be something unseen there. I plan on painting it many times in the future.

Once again, it proves difficult to transfer the painting from painting, to photo, to blog. The first photo shows a somewhat less edited version, whereas the second is a wee bit more true to colour, I'd say. In both cases, the paint is barely dry, and I'll probably upload another picture once I get the chance.

This was my very first time with oil colours, and I must say it was a very very interesting, somewhat frightening and rather exhilarating experience. With the audiobook "Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban" in my ears (read by Jim Dale), I set to work, in an old shirt, with rags everywhere and a lot of misgivings. It did prove to be a new and exciting experience, though, and I look forward to trying it again. It is possible to go back and mess with colours that would, with acrylics and watercolours, have tried long, long ago, and blending is a lot easier, as is modifying small details. One can even remove a spot of paint completely!

Whether the painting really is impressionist, I'm a bit hesitant to say. I will do over once I get a better grasp of that particular style.
Here then, we have the mostly-dry version! In a different light, but still. I say "almost" because, as I noticed, the white wasn't dry yet. After a week and a half. I do like oils, and this new thing about them NOT drying is... an opportunity, I look forward to exploring.