Sunday, July 26, 2009

Twilight

"Twilight Finale"
12" X 16" Oil on canvas
Both of my daughters were here this weekend so it was a mad house. Once everyone settled in for bed I came into the studio to poke through my reference material. I was looking for something close to twilight and came across a photo that looked good enough to work. These pink clouds are actually in the photo and I've been working on those lately so why not do another. The foreground in the photo was very dark so I lightened it up a but...too much I think, but it shows the grasses here so I like it. Most of this was finished last night but I needed to tweak things this morning after the girls left.

These skies are fun to do and I've figured out that there are two ways to do them. I did this version as if doing an alla prima painting. It works putting the light pinks over the blues but you lose some very nice details if done another way. I had painted the blues, both the light areas painted with Cerulean Blue/White and that duller shadowed area that is a mix of Ultramarine Blue and Alizarin. That is the shadow color for the clouds where the light isn't hitting them. If I left this part sit ovenight to tack up then adding the pink highlights of the clouds would be much easier and keep from blending with the blue mix which dulls down the pinks very quickly. The thing about doing it this second way is that it is way easier to control the intensity of the pinks and the amount of spread and softeness to the edges. It would also keep the blues cleaner and not dull them down with the pink mixture....just some thoughts on it.
Here is a detail of the hillside....

6 comments:

Ryan Evans said...

Nice subtle use of colour in the sky Ron

Ron Guthrie said...

Hi Ryan,
Hey, thanks for taking a look Ryan. Good to hear from you. Hope you're getting a good summer over there....time to be painting.
Ron

Jeanette Jobson said...

This is lovely work. I was always amazed by your pen and ink work over at WetCanvas and now have discovered your paintings too. You have the Midas touch, they're gorgeous.

Ron Guthrie said...

Hi Jeanette,
Thank you so much for the nice compliment. I'm still very much learning with every painting and have a long way to go until I would call myself an artist....I consider myself a painter at the moment. Art is a long road that seams to never end. The joy is that you can create such beautiful things along that road.
Thanks a bunch Jeanette. Much appreciated!
Ron

Helen Read said...

A beautiful painting! I love the subtlty of color in the sky!

Ron Guthrie said...

Hi Helen,
Thank you so much! I've really been taken with doing big sky pieces. I guess I'm seeing things differently out here where I live....it's almost as if there is this hugh connection of sky and land that I'm now seeing more of so it's coming out in the work.
Thanks again Helen,
Ron