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| "Under The Palms" - 30x30 Oil on Canvas |
"Under the Palms" is my most recent oil painting..... the result of a request
from my daughter for "something beachy" to fill a 40" space on her living room
wall. This was no small request! Her favorite place is in the Caribbean so she
knows the subject well. I don't usually photograph a project in it's different
stages, but I thought it important to document progress for my daughter as a
record to accompany the painting when it passes to the next generation in her
family:
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| Photo #1 |
With a thin mixture of Alizarin Crimson and Ultramarine Blue, I blocked
in the light, medium and dark values in the composition. I really liked the
strong "grayscale" rendering and was tempted to stop and go no farther!
But.....even though this was a nice "sketch" I knew my daughter had somthing
more "colorful" in mind....
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| Photo #2 |
......so I mixed up a
big puddle of cobalt blue, thinned it with Gamsol & washed in the sky
including a thin veil of blue over the distant
island.
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| Photo #3 |
Working alternately between the foreground and mid-ground, I began developing
the wide variety of greens. The greens in the foreground are darker in
value and "warmer" (more red), while the greens behind the cabana are lighter in
value and "cooler" (more blue). Separating colors from the foreground by
"temperature" creates depth.
Photo #4
In Photo #4, I worked
on the background first by painting the distant trees and enhanced the island
mountain. Moving forward to the middle ground, I painted the beach, the 1st
layer of color on the hut, and added highlight definition to the palms &
foliage behind the hut.
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| Photo #5 |
Photo #5 shows about
1/2 day's work; Added more color to the sky at the top, gradating down through
cloud formations ending with a cerulean (greenish-blue) at the horizon. Painted
the water & added a shoreline in the distance. Brought the sand color
forward as far as the trees and around the hut. I worked a little more on the
hut; shaped it up, added texture, and defined the support poles some more.
Painted the 1st layer of color on the palm tree in the right foreground.
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| Photo #6 |
Now it's really beginning to take shape! I finish all the foreground trees;
palms, their trunks and all the darkest darks & lightest lights that gives
them depth. More work on the thatch roof; softened the shadow edges and added
more texture to the thatch. Worked a little more on the horizon, especially in
the area where the mountain recedes and softly disappears into the blue sky.
This stage of the painting was another 1/2 day - palm trees are no easy task!
The application as well as the direction of the brush stroke makes a
difference....If the brush stroke is wrong, then the frond doesn't take on the
right shape.....and there are so many varying shapes with one upon the other.
The shapes - as a whole - have to give the viewer a sense of "motion"....
there's always a breeze on the beach. Then there are the bright, clear
colors.....oh, my!..... ranging from red to green to yellow.
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| Photo #7 - "Under The Palms" - 30x30 Oil on Canvas |
Photo #7 is the finished painting. The "gallery wrap" sides aren't visable.
Painting the sides, top & bottom involved another couple of hours with
"drying time" of 2 hours between each side. While working on the sides, I decided
the cabana was a little too "perfect" so I created a hole on the edge of the
roof and repainted the shadow below to show sunlight coming through. Repainting
the shadows under the hut led to working a little more on "edges" between
the sunlight and shadow on the sand - making some softer & lighter, others
harder and darker.
I delivered the painting on Christmas Eve and judging by her reaction I think she liked it!!! Of all the "commissions" in my
career, this one gave me the most pleasure; it was a special request from my
daughter, a subject that gave me a bit of a challenge (very different from
a Texas landscape) but most importantly, it's a painting that (I hope) will
remain in my family for a long, long time.
