Sky

I've started painting over the under painting of the sky area. It started as a medium to dark warm gray...a combination of burnt umber, ultramarine blue and white. The finished sky is painted with the same colors but much more white. The lower part of the sky gets a smidge of yellow added. I'm using filbert brushes...#8 and #6 for the sky. I'm also showing the overall painting at this stage. It's nearing completion. I still have foreground decisions to make. Also, at some point, I'll hang it up in the studio and just look at it for a few weeks to see if I want to do any thing else. I just realized that you can click on the image and it will show you a larger version with better detail. Also, someone was asking about looking at my son's blog...click on his name to the right..."Taylor Pate". The "my website" link takes you to my actual website.

"The Veiw" continues

Here you'll see the mid-ground area. This is where I wanted the most color and detail. As a way to introduce color without people, I've added a few flowers...naturally occurring objects in a cemetery. I'm using a lot of artistic license in the placement of tombstones etc...if it works it stays if not, it moves or doesn't go in. Also shown here is the right side of the mid-ground area...this area will stay void of much detail and color.

Details of "The Veiw"

I'll show some details of different areas as I progress. Here you see the trees and courthouse. The trees are painted over the sky as a solid grayish mass. After they dry, the sky(negative area) is painted over the gray area until a tree appears. Fine branches are added with pencil and "scratched" into the paint with a palette knife or Xacto blade.

The Veiw from Oak Hill

I started this painting as a demo for the Newnan Coweta Art Association and thought it would be interesting to those in attendance to see it finished in stages. I'll post an update periodically until it's done. Shown here is where I left off at the demo with just a little more detail added. The scene is the Coweta County courthouse in downtown Newnan as seen from Oak Hill cemetery. I took this photo a few years ago and knew that I would eventually paint the scene....didn't realize it would take this long to get around to it.

Cumberland studies

Here's a couple of 11X14 color studies of Cumberland Island scenes. I'm also doing several figurative studies at this size. It's a good size to work out some ideas and see what may translate well into larger works.