This is the fourth and last of this year's Small Scale series. The location is in North East France, just north of the River Authie valley.
I found this location a quite a few years ago, but hadn't worked out how to use it until now. Looking at this spot again, it clicked that the most important thing wasn't the autumn colour, but the quality and direction of the light*. The colours are very clear, yes, but the low sun is casting some very interesting light and shadows - my main point of interest being the shadow falling into the dip to the left of the wood, and the sunlit rising ground beyond it. All supported by the streaky shadows of unseen trees to the right.
The initial placings (pencil, but light blue crayon clouds) were developed with light Raw Umber acrylic wash - quite densely in the tree shadows - and most of the subsequent oil colour was very thin, and in transparent pigments. Opaque pigment was only really involved in the foreground field, where I deployed Unbleached Titanium Dioxide as a base – and that maybe helped to establish its nearness to the viewer (or maybe not).
There was an interesting use of white pigments in the sky. I was building up the sky colour with thin Ultramarine - zinged up with a touch of Pthalo Blue - and Zinc white, and I misjudged my second layer. I'd added too much Pthalo Blue, and had to do something to make it stop hurting my eyes. I applied a thin warm grey 'veil' - Paynes Grey, Burnt Umber, a touch of Ultramarine Violet, and a 50/50 mix of Zinc and Titanium Whites** - and softened it away gradually towards the horizon (Badger blender again). That calmed the sky down just enough, and produced some blues which were more subtle and interesting than if I hadn't had to sort out my ghastly mistake. Luckily.
I'm quite pleased with this piece. The scare with the toxic sky apart, I really enjoyed playing with the patchwork of colours within the wood, and working the strong directional lighting. Likewise the soft shadows fading away from the right picture edge, and the faint streaks of cloud (deliberately unreinforced after the last 'veil') - both quiet and undramatic, but effective.
Overall, I'm very happy with this set of very small paintings. I was short of time, so had to make fairly simple but strong compositions. They were all spray varnished successfully - each had an initial coat of gloss, then the first three sprayed with satin varnish to calm them down a bit. This one had a second layer of gloss – to give the transparent colours maximum pop. And that's them away for now - job done.
The whole Small Scale show – several hundred pieces I think – is at the Open Eye gallery in Edinburgh, and is up online here. Due to Covid etc (at time of writing , anyway), if you want to view a running selection of them face-to-face on the wall in the gallery, you'll have to contact the Open Eye beforehand to get a time-slot. Also, the paintings will be taken down and replaced as they get sold, so if you're interested in any pieces in the show – (not just mine!) - get on the phone or email the gallery sooner rather than later.
This is probably going to be the last post this year, so I'll wish everyone a good holiday over the festive season, and be hoping that 2021 will bring some good things with it - despite everybody's present travails and frustrations – and good health.
Cheers, and Happy New Year when it comes...
* If you're looking for a startling show of rich autumn colour you could do worse than click the location link again, and turn south-west into the sun. Follow the road for about 800-900 metres, and there's a gloriously rich autumn wood on the left.
** I should mention that cobalt driers/siccative was added to these paints on the palette, as they are two of the slowest-drying common pigments on the planet. I usually add it to my mediums, and then mix those into the paint, but adopting the habit of mixing-in one or two of drops of driers per 2 centimetres or so of squeezed-out Zinc or Titanium White will literally save years of waiting-to-dry time.
