Shimmer colours of Olive Trees

Olive Tree Trio
SOLD

by Mairon Hedger

30x24cm (approx 12"x10")

Oil on gessoed panel
palette knife painting

This is one I painted a while ago.

Olive Trees
This is an amalgam of trees from different photos but I quite like the way it came together. I wanted to show how olive trees are blue, turquoise and green all at the same time, particularly if there is a slight breeze blowing.
It is slightly larger that the other four paintings (which can be seen HERE) and this allowed me to concentrate on the form of the trunks. I love the rough, tactile, gnarled bark of the olive trees, a product of the hard pruning they receive.

Niçoise speciality
Here around Nice the olives produced by the trees are very small, but they are delicious and are a Niçoise speciality. We have three olive trees in the garden but I have never preserved the olives as it takes ages to get them to the edible stage. Raw they are extremely bitter and have to be soaked in brine to be edible.

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Changeover - The start of Autumn, Finished with WIP images

Changeover -  The start of Autumn

30x40cm oil on gallery wrapped canvas

AVAILABLE

We don't get much in the way of autumn colours here in the Alpes Maritime although sometimes you get surprising little pockets where the autumn colours shine. This lovely spot is in the Parc d'Esteron in the Alpes Maritime. We found it by accident down a tiny track we decided to explore during one of our country drives.

Work in Progress images:

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Shadowland Updated and WIP photos

Shadowland

24x30cm oil on canvas panel.

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The 30 painting in 30 days challenge has finished - Well it finished at the end of September of course, I have just been a bit slow in collating all my paintings and posting.


The 30 day challenges are fun and it really does make you think about painting and producing art. Some work out and others are not so good but it is the palette knife (or brush) miles that count. I included more larger paintings than my usual 18x24cm than I normally do to allow myself more freedom - sometimes making a composition fit on the smaller boards is difficult, especially if, like me, you have a tendency to put in too much detail. Consequently I had a many more not quite finished paintings than normal.

I am gradually working my way through them adding the final touches. I shall share these as I go along.

Today's painting is 'Shadowland'. It needed more work on the shadows and some touching up on the background colours. I am now happy with it and it reminds me of the day we walked through the dappled shadows in the woods at Chateau la Coste.

Here are some work-in-progress photos:

Away from the Heat, palette knife painting

Away from the Heat

24x30cm (approx 10x12inch)

Oil palette knife painting on MDF board.

AVAILABLE

See Yesterdays Painting in the challenge HERE

The title says everything. This is our bolthole when the heat gets too much in the summer months.

My 30 paintings in 30 days challenge

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Work in Progress, Trees against the sunset

I haven't had much chance to paint lately, I had to go over to England before Christmas due to illness in the family and I will be over there again on Sunday. In the meantime I had the urge to paint silhouette trees against a sunset. Why, I don't know but the idea just came to me.

I have two 6x8's waiting to dry a little before photographing them to try to get the colour combinations right. I have started a larger one (24x30cm / 9.5x12inch) and want to do a larger one still after that one.

About this painting
I started without toning the canvas and initially I blocked in the trees using thin paint mixed with liquin. This allowed me to get the spacing of the trees more or less right.

This dried almost instantly and allowed me to start underpainting the sky. I went straight over the trees as I was sure I would be able to see enough of the shape to work ontop of the sky. This also has the advantage of mixing in some of the sky colour into the tree colour aiding harmony and reflected colour.

I then re-established the trees and started to get serious about the sky. I ran out of light and hope to finish tomorrow.

Autumn Beauty Commission

You may remember this painting from last year's 30 paintings in 30 days challenge. The original (see post here) was 24x30cm and sold almost immediately. Today I received a commission to paint this in a larger version, 50x60cm (20"x24") so I have been happy dancing all day.

It's a double bonus because I was wanting to paint a a large autumn scene and wondering which of my photos to paint from. This will get me back into the swing of painting larger pieces and who knows, I may be tempted to paint my 32"x 30" canvas I have been staring at for over a year.

It takes me away from this months challenge, put I will pick up the challenge afterwards to add more paintings for the Save the Rhino Trust fundraising.

Provence Pines, next in series of colourful trees

Provence pines

oil palette knife painting

30x30cm (approx 12"x12") on 1.5" deep gallery wrapped canvas.

Available on Daily Paintworks

The third of my impressionist/expressionist treescapes this time painted in oil with a palette knife. I'm finding it hard not to over blend those strokes but the colour is definitely more vibrant.

Gentle Meandering - Japanese Stream oil painting

Gentle Meandering

Oil Palette Knife Painting

24x30cm (approx 10x12 inch) on canvas panel
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I wasn't quite happy with the light in the background trees see Here. It was a dull day and then the sun suddenly broke through and I wanted to emphasise that. I lightened part of the background and put in a few other touches.

Some close-ups of the knife work.

Japanese Stream - Water and Rocks Day 9, 30 paintings in 30 days

Japanese Stream palette knife painting

Oil on canvas board 24x30cm (approx 10x12)

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This is the finished painting from day 6. I struggled with bringing all of this together and changed my mind several times. I started reading "Impressionist Painting Landscapes" by George Gallo part of the way through this and changed my colours slightly to use the complementary triad of purple, green and orange. One of George's mantras is that you should have a clear idea of the finished painting before your start. Well I broke that rule! I do find that many of my paintings are worked out as I go along. One of my goals this year is to become more disciplined and do my composition designs, tonal sketches and colour choices before I start.

How do you start your paintings? Are you  organised before you start, or do you create as you go along?

Some close-ups

Work in Progress Japanese Garden - Water and Rocks Day 7, 30 paintings in 30 days

Work in Progress, Japanese garden

24x30cm (approx 10x12inch)

Acrylic on canvas board.

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After yesterday I wanted something to do that didn't involve going into the studio and using oils. I opened my studio window to air it, and moved upstairs with my acrylics.

It has been so long since I last used acrylics that I had to re-acquaint myself with them. I also found many of my acrylics had dried up after being neglected for so long, leaving me with only a few usable acrylics. I had no alazarin crimson and only a very bright ultramarine, a yellow and sap green and white. My normal acrylics are Winsor and Newton which are quite thick, but apart from the green, the rest were from a mixture of brands much more liquid. My initial idea was to use my palette knifes, but the paint was far too fluid. It was also very transparent. I gradually built up the layers and I can see the painting starting to emerge. I remember the maxim "The good thing about acrylics is that they dry fast. The bad thing is that they dry fast!". I ran out of light so could not finish.

A close-up

Work in Progress - Water and Rocks Day 6, 30 paintings in 30 days

Work in Progress

Stream in Japan (working title)

24x30cm

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I am posting a work in progress which I started yesterday and didn't manage to finish. I opened a new tube of titanium white from a different manufacturer. The oil in the paint was linseed oil and it was very oily. The smell was overpowering and I started to feel nauseous and a little breathy. Along with many artists, I'm not keen on turpentine and even odorless spirits so don't use these, but it is the first time linseed oil has had this effect. Does anyone else have a problem with linseed oil? I've just received my supplies delivery and I have a new tube of Winsor and Newton titanium white my usual paint, so I will be able to finish it today.

Anyway, back to the painting. This is a stream I came across in Japan as I was walking back to our apartment in Tokyo. It wasn't in a formal garden and I liked the way it was less manicured than the traditional gardens. Still needs a lot of work, and I've given it a larger support to do it justice. It is quite a complicated scene and I can already see that I need to simplyfy more.

Tree grouping study

 I am planning to paint a larger landscape painting. Two recent attempts were not too successful, so before diving straight in, I plan to do some studies of the various elements in the paintings. In my eagerness to put paint to canvas, I confess that I often miss out these steps. As an insight into the way I think preparing for a painting should work I am sharing some of the process with you, including the bad and the ugly.

I am starting with a study of a group of trees, so typical in the landscape of Provence.



STUDY 1

Using a black chisel-end marker, I painted the negative space around the group of trees. A black marker is an ideal way to figure out the overall shape. In this instance I used the negative space (space around the object) but it also works using the positive (actual) shape of the object. I normally use a marker with a 1½" tip, but it had run dry, so I made do with a normal sharpie marker.

Good points about the sketch

• Good negative abstract shapes between the tree trunks which are all different.

Bad points

• The tree group fits into a square shape (using the left hand side of my brain instead of the right)
• Right hand side is very round

STUDY 2
Again using a black marker and trying to make a better overall shape

 Good Points

• Better shape
• Negative space between trunks still good.

Bad Points

• Dips in the top of the trees almost the same
• Two similar shapes appearing on the lhs of the tree - Just when you think you have sorted it, the left hand brain kicks in again.

To fuhter improve the shape, white acrylic can be used to work back into the ink. In this case I used pastel as it was a quicker than getting out my acrylics.

Study 3 - Tonal study
I used a dark grey, light grey and off white pastel for this study, acrylic is also good. This shows how the form starts to come through without using much detail.

Study 4 - Tonal study on coloured paper
Using the same pastels as above, a fourth study. Getting better but still not spot on.

Two things need improving:

• I need to remove the first dip at the top of the tree which will give the left hand side of the grouping more height
• I need to extend part of the right side outwards.
  

 I imported this into photoshop and made a few rough changes

much better.

These studies took me about half an hour to do. It's a great way of working out the shape of trees and keeping it loose.

What do you do to prepare for larger paintings or practice different elements of the landscape? Let me know in the comments (also leave a link) and I will include a summary in a future blog.

Attention! - Day 23, 30 day challenge by Marion Hedger

Attention!

Palette knife oil painting

15x15cm (6"x6") on box canvas

Available for auction on Daily Paintworks

A small portion of one of my photos of poplar trees taken in the summer. Poplar trees? you say. "Too small, don't really look like poplar trees!" Well, as I always say to hubby -  they're not really trees, it's a painting! LOL.

About this painting
I didn't have much time today and couldn't complete the painting I had in mind. I did have time for a small one, so I took a prepared 6x6" box canvas with a pink ground and homed in on a small portion of a photo. I'm sure the trees are out of proportion, but I quite like the end result.

Autumn Beauty by Marion Hedger - Day 22, 30 day challenge

Autumn Beauty

Palette knife painting

oil on MDF canvas

24x30 cm (approx 10x12inches)

Contact me about this or any other painting at artbymarion at orange.fr

This painting is a combination of me flicking through some autumn photographs and the composition from a  previous autumn painting from last year, but with a more yellow combination of colours this time.

Autumn Reflections

I still have to decide if I have finished today's painting or if the reflections need to be pumped up a bit. As I am looking at the photo, I can see that the water needs more work, so I shall call this one a work-in-progress.
The blue is too pronounced in the photo but I could not seem to correct for this in Photoshop.

Some close-ups

The picnic spot - Day 12, 30 paintings in 30 days

The Picnic Spot

Oil palette knife painting

25x30cm (10"x12") box canvas 28mm deep

The edges are painted black. This painting would look good in a floating frame

Contact me about this or any other painting HERE

On our day trips out around Provence we normally take a picnic for lunch. Sometimes we can drive for ages to find that 'ideal' spot, sunny but shady, quiet, close to the road but not busy etc. I'm sure you've all done the same. Sometimes, like the spot in the painting we hit it without too much trouble. The sunlight and shadows appealed to me, and this is the painting with a little bit of editing to remove a few trees.

Cork Tree Work in Progress stage 2

Adding the highlights using yellow ochre pale mixed with white for the lightest highlights, and YOP mixed with alazarin crimson for the secondary highlights

Most of the shadows added using ultramarine blue and UB with alazarin crimson.
I like the turquoise from the underpainting that's peeping through in places and I think I will keep those.

The next step is to start on the foliage. I am pleased with the structure of the tree.

Next update tomorrow.

Contact me about this or any other painting HERE

Sweet Chestnut walk and Coastal Pines sold

Sweet Chestnut Walk

Coastal pines

Both these paintings are now sold. Thank you Liz and Ruth from New Hampshire and Indiana, respectively.

The third painting of this trilogy is still avaialable

Cork Sentinels Palette Knife Painting

18x24cm (approx 7"x10")

Impasto oil on MDF canvas panel

Available on Daily Paintworks

Waiting for Spring - winter snow scene, palette knife painting

Waiting for Spring - winter snow scene

palette knife painting

24x35cm (approx 10x14inch)

on box canvas

Day 30 of the 30 day challenge

Well the last day of the challenge is here, and it is time to take a breather and stock of all the paintings. I like some much better than others and will work on a few some more after I have studied them. Sometimes it takes a while to be able to assess a painting more critically than when it has just been painted.

About this painting
This was painted from a photograph on Paint my Photo, in response to this week's challenge on Daily Paintworks. I painted it over three days as the trees refused to form into a painterly order. The lef-hand-most tree was painted and wiped several times. It started out as a very thick tree, but just did not look right. It's much better now I have given it some breathing space.

Limited palette
I used a limited palette of alazarin crimson, ultramarine blue, cadmium orange and a touch of cadmium yellow. Maybe I should have toned down the alazarin to make it less red? Let me know what you think?

Some close-ups

Colourful Birches, Day 12 of the 30 day challenge and an offer

Colourful Birches

Gouache painting on canvas board

17.5x12.5cm (7"x5")

for the duration of the challenge

This painting is available for 35€ 

(it will revert back to the normal price of 55€ in Feb)

This painting has quite a story.

It used to be a gouache painting of birches (I know - it is still a gouache painting of birches!) but it just wasn't working. I hosed it down under the tap to remove the painting. As I was washing the old painting off, I paused and saw the wash of colours that was developing on the canvas. I loved the delicate meld of colours coming out. I decided to keep this wash and paint the trees over it using the same colours that had appeared in the wash.

For the trees, I used undiluted gouache laid on with a flat brush, mostly in a sideways stroke. The background is the untouched remaining wash. I am quite pleased with the painting.

NOTE
One of the benefits of gouache that is watersolouble and can be completely removed with water. If I had constinued washing the paint off I would have eventually got back to the original ground, although there might have been a few patches from the staining colours.