The process oil vs. watercolor Pacific Trees
The Process:
As I was wandering through our backyard the other day I took a moment to appreciate living in the Pacific Northwest. We get these amazing cloudy nights where the clouds create a luminescent layer back lit by the moon. Looking at the clouds over my head, I had an inspiration moment and decided to try and recreate the feeling I had. It is rare that I’m walking through an area and can see what I want to create like a vision floating in my head. The hard part is then carving the time to create what I want. I will start research, photographs and sketches immediately. I find that the painting takes over my brain and it’s all I think about—in our family we call it the art frenzy. All else becomes secondary to creating the piece—at least it used to.. now I have a personal life that matters more so I have to figure out a better balance.
For this piece, I wandered through our backyard and took a series of photos of the trees that inspired the piece. I then printed the photos out and pasted them around my worktable so I could stare at them as I created.
Creating the sky in my vision was an interesting journey. Since I normally work in watercolor, I naturally began thinking of this piece in watercolor.
That being said, I thought this piece would be a great opportunity to create an oil painting. I started a watercolor sky and an oil sky… and loved the oil sky. I had so much fun that I began adding the trees to the oil painting first.
I found that the required patience of working in oil was a major transition but probably good for my character (I’m terribly impatient). I first created the sky and had to wait two days for it to dry. Each tree was painted and then given some time to dry.
Now the question is, “is the painting done?”. I welcome your comments and thoughts on both the oil painting and the watercolor painting.
Best wishes to all who are out there!
Liz
September 3rd, 2009 at 7:21 am
Where’s the camper trailer that appears in the photo? 😉
I think a gentle reflective glow of a camp fire and a wisp of smoke would be cool.
September 3rd, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Grin, that camper trailer is our neighbor’s RV in their backyard… it’s right next to the dumptruck that somehow has a new home. I’ll ponder the campfire idea… could be a good future painting.
December 18th, 2009 at 6:15 am
Liz – I think it’s done. That’s the constant question for all artists…but I like it!
January 26th, 2010 at 1:20 pm
Becca, thanks! I agree with you. it’s done, in fact it’s hanging on the studio wall and generally looking like a cloudy night out here. I’ll be posting a video of the studio soon and showing everyone what it all looks like in the studio.