Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Century Barn - A Work in Progress

The weather remains bright, warm and sunny which is a pleasant change from the long cold winter we have experienced.

Today is the first day of a three day workshop with Doug Mays being held at Six Foot Bay in Buckhorn, Ontario.

The theme for the workshop is shades of grey and during the course we are going to create a wide range of greys with various paint colour mixes.

The first painting was of an old barn. The barn board was various mixtures of Prussian blue and alizarin crimson.

Instead of doing his barn, I chose to paint a couple of my barns, in this case the east and north barns. The west barn is behind the east barn and not visible.














The upper part of the paper was wet, leaving the barn and foreground untouched. The sky was a graduated wash of French ultramarine blue, and allowed to dry completely.

Next the foreground was washed with clear water and various mixtures of raw sienna and Quinacridone gold and once again it was set aside to dry.

Once the foreground was completely dry it was time to start with the barn board. To start a pale mix of Antwerp blue and alizarin crimson was put over the barns with a dry brush.

Gradually the pigments were darkened as more layers were added. There is still a lot more to do on the barn.

I will post this painting at a later date after the barn board is completed.