Wednesday 9 April 2008

FIRST DAYS WORK ON MILL OIL PAINTING



I started at above 11.30 this morning by blocking in the sky with King Blue Deep, Ultramarine Blue and Titanium white from the Michael Harding scrumptious oil tubes, creating some moving
clouds. I painted in the trees and shrubs with their reflections with sap green, terre verte, bright green lake, red umber and some of the blue I had in the sky. All quite a thin wash as I dont want these elements to dominate the building.



Then after a lunch break you can see I had fun putting in the first coat of the mill together with warm shadows and reflections.




Then I felt the need to cover all the canvas, so that no white was left showing to mislead the eye with the tones I put on. I know the wall on the left is too bright to start with but theres a long time to go yet and adjustments are to be made along the journey.


This is when I decided I had painted enough for one day and the light was going anyway - and Clive called me for dinner at 6.30. All perfect timing. Wont get back to it again until possibly Friday afternoon for a short time and then I am away over the weekend. I think I am growing to like this one and hope I'll have some time early next week to really get cracking on the texture, detail of the building, the reflections and waterside plants and grasses I will be making up in the foreground.

8 comments:

"JeanneG" said...

What a great sketch. And so much architectural bits and pieces. You are doing a very beautiful job on the painting too. With the reflection, it's like painting it twice. I love the way it looks. Can't wait to see the finish.

Anonymous said...

This looks really great joan...great reflections!
Ronell

Anita Davies said...

What a great day's work Joannie!!!

Claudia said...

Joan, you were really diligent! I like your mill painting and I find it very interesting to show photos of the different stages. Thank you for sharing it!

Robert A Vollrath said...

Great work as always Joan. I love how you give a building a soul in your paintings.

Joan Sandford-Cook said...

Thank you all for checking this post out and for your kind comments. Robert - I didnt know I did that in my work - but its wonderful to know you see it this way. Amazing it happens for buildings other than the churches I do, where I quite understand the 'spiritual' aspect coming through.

Serena Lewis said...

This is already looking splendid, Joan...I'll look forward to seeing it finished ~ :)

Joan Sandford-Cook said...

Thanks Serena - Im giving up life drawing session today so I can concentrate on developing the building this afternoon - after a busy morning.