A different way of painting landscapes

Plein air painting has many qualities to recommend it -- an appreciation of the imposing beauty of the natural world, a meditative experience, a simple excuse to pass hours of the day outdoors in fine weather, etc -- but I still wanted to see what it would be like to approach it as I do my animal paintings, and my portraits.

And winter, sigh, isn't far behind this gorgeous end of summer.

So I took photos from which to paint, prepared a canvas with a solid color I felt like resonating off of, did a preliminary drawing in one color of chalk (pink, this time), then grounded them to the canvas with acrylic paint of the same color. 

Next I started creating the color scheme with more acrylic paint. And then this time, unlike in other paintings, instead of refining in acrylic, I moved on to oils. 


Some of the oils are water soluble, but most aren't so I just treated them all like regular linseed based oil painting. I don't use solvents or a medium, and then I clean up with vegetable oil, followed by regular dish soap. It works really well, and isn't dangerous in a child and cat-filled house.

The result has a less raw quality, more finished and even a little refined. Worth playing with, don't you think?

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