Painting on the Spot

Assignment 3 – Landscape

Painting on the spot

For this exercise I returned to a small brook where I have painted before, it is the brook which runs under the Goldbrook Bridge where St Edmund was discovered because allegedly his gold spurs sparkled in the sun, giving his whereabouts away.

I have used acrylic in the painting and have tried to include the mist which often floats across such water during the Autumn.  I was attracted by the way the light penetrates the overcast water, and have made more of a feature of this than in the sketch.  There is for me a sense of mystery in such places and I have tried to capture this.

Check and Log

·        Did you need to gather further information while you were on location?

Not really, as I knew I would be developing this back in the studio, I did a brief charcoal sketch which gave me an indication of the light and dark areas.  However when I came to paint I felt the light area worked well in the trees so didn’t darken the area as much as it was.

·        How did you decide when to finish your work outside? Did you do enough or too much outside?

The area that I worked on outside was the foreground water which I felt needed to be observed direct.  In the studio I developed that area and incorporated the mist, which was more difficult than I thought.

       ·        How far did your work, when you came back to your studio, move away from the landscape that had been your starting point? Or did it stay close to the starting point?  How did you decide where to take your painting?

I think it stayed pretty close to the original, except for the colours which at the scene had been rather muddy.  The autumn leaves glowed and I wanted to try to capture this light so did not include some of the foliage which had been quit dark.  I think I am motivated by colour rather than form and this is what influenced the direction of the painting.