Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Nipomo Meadow


"Nipomo Meadow"
30" X 40" Oil on Canvas
This meadow had such a nice bit of sunlight splashed across it when I was up here at the eucalyptus stands in Nipomo off of Hwy 101. I tried to catch that light and still get a nice sense of the darks in the foreground. There were a lot of greens in this painting so it was nice to work on variations of that. You can never get enough practice with greens in landscape work.
I like the large size on this one too and am finding myself really building much more confidence at larger works. This would have taken me forever to paint a few years ago but now it is much faster. Really concentrating on my grasses the last two years has really paid off. It's hard to see most of the detail in the grasses here but on the actual painting they look pretty cool.
I'm still using the Utrecht Artist Oils and really enjoying the process of dialing my mixes in with them. To me the Utrecht paints are very similar to Winsor & Newton Artist Oils. So far so good with the Utrecht's.


13 comments:

Unknown said...

What a marvellous job you've done with this. It has everything, beautiful recession, great contrast between warm and cool and a rich range of values. Put all of those into a charming composition and you have a real winner.

Ron Guthrie said...

Thanks a lot Mick. I loved the contrasting warm/cools off of the big tree too. There really was a lot going on in this scene....full of compositional balances. Glad you like this one Mick.

Christine Brallier said...

What I love about your landscapes is the softness. Not just in the colors, but in your strokes. I rarely see a straight line anywhere. It just feels easy. Like those teeny branches coming off the tree in the bottom left corner. So delicate. Your paintings always make me want to be there.

Ron Guthrie said...

Hi Christine,
I think the "softness" in my paintings is probably caused by the dabbing of paint instead of actual brush strokes. I think I really only brush on paint when blocking in areas. On top of that will be the detail work.
Thanks for the nice comments Christine. Always good to here from you.

fairy fantasy art said...

Its marvelous....

Ron Guthrie said...

Thanks Maria for checking out the work and the nice comment, I really appreciate it!

Christine Brallier said...

But isn't a dab a stroke? :)

Ron Guthrie said...

Hahahaha....I think a stroke is like drawing a line with a pencil and a Dab would be more like making a checkmark with a pencil using the side of the pencil or brush in this case....does that make sense, hahaha.

Hope you're ready for Christmas. We're still plugging away at it. Did some wrapping this afternoon and shopping yesterday.

And how is the book coming along??

Christine Brallier said...

I'm clueless about the painting lingo. Makes sense since I was a horrible painter, haha. Just about ready for Christmas. I have to be since Jack will be out of school next week! Thanks for dropping by my blog to check out the book progress. I am in the middle of the 7th mosaic. When I'm done with the 8th, I will be halfway there! Happy Holidays to you and your family, Ron!

Marian Fortunati said...

Absolutely gorgeous, Ron... Wow...

You know I like how you always have so much atmosphere in your landscapes, but this also has so much beauty in the various trees near and far... lots of interesting detail...

VERY NICE...

Ron Guthrie said...

Hi Christine....Merry Christmas to you and your family. Jr is already off until after NY...OMG! By the way, at times, I'm a horrible painter too.

Hi Marian....Thanks for the comments on this Marian...much appreciated. You are getting into so many shows I can't keep track! That's excellent. Merry Christmas Marian!!

Ryan Evans said...

Hi Ron

this is great- the sense of spacial depth does it for me - very nice indeed!

I've not tried Utretch paints as I've seen them over here. I do use Winsor & Newtons a fair bit though

Ryan

Susan Roux said...

Lovely colors here. Hope you have a Merry Christmas.