Fantasy Oil Painting - The Dream by the River

Fantasy Oil Painting - The Dream by the River

The above painting was started a long time ago but only finished last year. It was one of a number of fantasy paintings which I wanted to paint for my own enjoyment. I had the name in mind first before I ever visualised the actual painting. I had to make a number of changes during working on it. I started and finished a lot of other paintings in between but kept going back to it. To see some of the other work in this series see Symphony of Silence and Desert of the Blue Stones. Also Inverted Desert which came about as a result of the colours I chose in Desert of the Blue Stones. I have a number of other ideas I want to paint to add to this series in my own time. I might eventually get around to them but I want to concentrate mainly on more saleable works, so the series is taking a backseat but progressing slowly. If I add to it, I shall post the next work on the blog - probably in a few months time. Patience is important in art when you are working fulltime! Feel free to comment on this work, as I'm interested in feedback.

The Impressionist Movement - A Brief Glance

Chasing Butterflies 1874 Berthe Morisot

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The Impressionists
The Impressionists were a loosely associated group of painters that worked mainly in France during the later half of the 19th century. The movements main artists were:

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)
Claude Monet (1840-1926)

Edgar Degas (1834-1917)

Edouard Manet (1832-1883)

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)
Alfred Sisley (1839-1899)

Mary Cassett (1844-1926)

Berthe Morisot (1841-1895)

During the course of the 19th century the government of France sponsored an annual exhibition to recognise and identify new artistic talent. This was known as the Salon. The Salon's view of art was that it should follow the classical traditions of the Rennaissance Period - dark browns and black in dark paintings. Anyone who didn't adher to the views of the Salon was left out in the cold. Artists rebelled against this and struggled against the Salon's monopoly. Those that could afford to, had private exhibitions. Eventually in 1874 an exhibition by rebel artists was organised in the centre of Paris and opened the same week as the Salon's exhibition. Over the next 12 years over fifty "rebel" artists exhibited. They had 8 exhibitions in the years 1874-1886. The movement was called the impressionists after a work called " Impression, Sunrise" by Monet in 1874, and also due to the unclear style of their drawing and lack of attention to detail. The name stuck, and was adopted by the artists for their future exhibitions, as they had struggled to define a name for their group previously.

Although he had partaken in the last five exhibitions Paul Gauguin is considered a post-impressionist as is Vincent Van Gogh. The majority of Van Goghs work was created as the movement was past it's peak and although he worked with them during his time in Paris, he sought an individualistic pathway for his art. Gauguin also was to follow such an individual pathway.

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On the Grass 1874 Berthe Morisot

Les Parapluies 1883 Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Well I hope you enjoyed this short glimpse into art past. Perhaps I will revisit some of these artists works in the blog again at a later date. In the meantime, check back again for my completion of Clew Bay landscape. It should be finished this week.

Oil Painting Demonstration - Clew Bay Part III

Working on the Detail - Clew Bay Oil Painting
Continuing on from last week Part I and Part II of this online oil painting work in progress, the following pictures show how I have progressed beyond the initial underpainting.

In the above, I have worked on the cloud to try and deepen the layer of paint as it was a little thin, and also to define the cloud shapes. The colour may be a little too intense and I may go over it with a glaze at the final stage, later, but for now I will leave it to dry. I used mostly titanium white with manganese blue, so nothing unusual there.

Next, I moved onto the mountains and using ultramarine blue with the same white, I defined the mountain shadows in a more definite way. I used a mix of raw umber, tiniest amount with ultramarine or cobalt blue and titanium white to create the grey blue of the rest of the mountains. I tried to define the shape of the mountains using the brushstrokes. I also reduced the green of the mountain shoreline by glazing over with the same colour mix very lightly. I might have to go over this whole mountain section with a glaze to add a more bluish tinge to everything and push it into the far distance, but will decide at a later stage.
I also covered the water with a mix of manganese blue and titanium white as the underpainting was very thin. When this is dry I may put some additional shadow on the water, but for now this is it.

On to the middle ground now, and this covers from the front of the mountains to just below the beach on right. In this area there is a need for a lot of colour variation. I wanted to keep colour and colour intensity harmony. I felt the island on the right was too yellow for it's distance, so I toned it down (titanium white mixed with ultramarine blue and cadmium yellow). I used slight variations of this mix on the other island areas, darkening or lightening the mix as necessary using less or more of the white or blue. It's not an exact science. Basically all I did was to cover over this area, all parts in a thicker layer of colour so as not to have any areas of thin paint left. I used cobalt blue or ultramarine blue with cadmium yellow or lemon yellow to create different greens here. I darkened areas using raw umber mixed with either of the blues and I created light greys using white to the darkened mix. That about somes it up.

For the foreground it's a similar story. I covered all the foreground with fresh paint to remove the thin paint look. I tried to create colour variety by mixing various greens as I had done in the underpainting, and the only significant detail to note was I added some manganese blue into the field on the right. You can see it in small streaks standing out. It creates a little link to the same colour in the water and sky.

The picture is almost finished. The next photo I upload will hopefully be the finished painting, all going well. Looking at it, I could leave it but might just try the glaze on sky and mountains, and add slight shadow to water. Both are risky but I'll be careful. Check back during the week to see what happens.

It's been a busy weekend for me so the blog put it's feet up. I didn't as I had a lot of work to do on my home. Having a number of projects to do at home is a sure fire way to stop you doing art. I just completed laying a section of patio, so feel a sense of achievement from that, but I'm also glad I'm getting that job out of the way too.