Painting as Problem Solving

Winter light, 11 x 14 inches, oil/canvas

When I stand in front of a painting, I will think about different things as I react to what I am seeing.  I may find the work poetic, vibrant, disturbing, melancholy....

When I stand in front of my canvas and I have to determine my colour palette,my thinking is quite different.  What I think about is how to translate the complexity of the colours that I see into pigments and how to get them all to work together. I have a difficult problem that I have to solve.  This is the challenge of any  and every painting. 

study, 8 x 10 inches, oil/canvas

A good way to tackle this problem is to do a colour study.  It is like a rough draft or  the calculations one makes on a scrap of paper.   Part 2 of the Winter landscape is a colour study that takes a look at how solve the colour problem issue.
You can see it in high definition at You Tube.

Winter Landscape Part 1

oil, 11 x 14 inches

I will generally start a landscape with an underpainting, especially if the subject has a complex colour structure or composition.  This is short video describing  one method for making a tonal underpainting  in preparation for a winter landscape.

You can see this video in high definition on You Tube.

Atmospheric Perspective Part 2

This is a continuation of the last video Atmospheric Perspective.  I demonstrate how to paint wet on wet over a coloured ground using complementary colours.  I shy away from blending colours with my brush.  By progressively adding more paint, colours blend naturally together on the canvas.

You can see this in highdefinition at You Tube