Winter Trail I - A Work in Progress

This is a painting I started on Monday in the first of four afternoon workshops with Lucy Manley at KAGS.

While most of the class worked in oil with Lucy, there were three of us who preferred to work in acrylic.

The panel was first primed with a wash of raw sienna.

Next the landscape was sketched in using a brush and cadmium red paint.

A mixture of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna was used to put in the darkest objects and shadows.

Using French ultramarine blue and cadmium yellow the needles were put onto the main tree branches and then the sunlit areas were indicated with lemon yellow in the needles.

The green mixtures used in the pine needles were glazed throughout different areas of the background trees to unite the colours through the painting.

Various mixtures of white, cerulean blue and ultramarine blue with a little alizarin crimson was then applied into the background trees to create the illusion of distance.

The same colours were used for the snow shadows in the foreground.

Using pure titanium white the snow was painted throughout the foreground between the snow shadows. Care was taken so the shadows followed the line of the trail through the snow. Rising and falling in and out of the ruts.

The sky was painted in using white and cadmium yellow. A small amount of this paint was also glazed over a few areas of the snow.

I found it interesting the way she applied the different layers of paint for the under painting and next week the top layers will be applied over most of the under paint. It is quite different from any other instructor with whom I have had a workshop.

I think I will have to try this technique a little more often in some of my next acrylic paintings

We will be completing this piece next week at which time I will post this painting as far as I have finished it in class.