#270 'Morning Frost, The Trundle' 8x14"

I'm a bit behind with posting as I have three to put on, two snow paintings and this frosty one.
Took artist friend Sarah Manolescue for the first time to the Trundle. It was a gorgeous morning and she was wowed! I moved so I could get the sparkle on the sea in the distance and trees and shadows in the foreground. 
It was difficult to see the sky as it was washed out with the bright low sun. I wiped it off and repainted it when I got back to the studio. The sky tone had to be darker than the sea but lighter than the distant land. Using yellow in the sky and violet in the hills, complementaries working together.
Making the middle distant hills a green-blue colour and light in tone made it look like frost. The cows were tricky I hadn't put them in and the farmer turned up in his truck beeping his horn they all came running, so cute to watch. Feed time. I was pleased they did disperse again so I could paint them in - small and dark.

Equipment #1 Oil Paint

A fellow artist asked me to do a post about the equipment I use. I thought this was a good idea as I'm interested in what others use and can often learn and get ideas.

So I hope to do four posts on my equipment especially around plein air painting (outside painting). This can be translated into studio work as well.
It was tricky putting this post together as my equipment changes as I change and develop but here it as at this point! 

Oil Paint
Comprises of the 3 primaries, a warm & cool of each, an earth and whites.

Red
Scarlet Lake (orange red)  Mixes well with Cad Yellows & muting greens
Permanent Rose (pink red) Lovely purples with Ultramarine, intense needs controlling

Blue
Ultramarine (has violet in, a dark tone) good all rounder for mixing Michael Harding rich colour, use a lot for mixing with Burnt Sienna
Cerulean (greenie, like turquoise, light tone) Great skies & water nice mixed with Naples Yellow

Yellow
Naples Yellow Deep (warm & light tone) skies work well with this colour
Cadmium Yellow Lemon (cool greenie) strong, acidic light in tone, mixes well with Ultramarine for a clean green
Cadmium yellow (rich & warm) Use a lot of sunrise sunsets great mixer and 
Yellow Ochre (opaque) good for earthy greens and darker in tone than Naples Yellow

Earth
Burnt Sienna (mid brown) wonderful greys mixed with Ultramarine, love the M.Harding colour of this

White 
Titanium (strong opaque),  Zinc (soft strength semi translucent),  Warm (medium strength good mixer)

The colours really differ between brands and I'm now leaning towards Michael Harding paint although it's on the top end of cost its quality is amazing as you only need a little to tint a colour mix for example their Cadmium Yellow Lemon is so powerful usually lemon yellow is a bit wishie washy not this, you just need a smidge to change the colour of your mix.
You can see which colours I use the most by the size of the tubes. 

The occasional use tubes (see pic) I will add extra to my palette depending where I go to paint eg a seascape I will add my two extra blues: Cobalt & Kings Blue Deep.
The Manganese Blue is a translucent version of the Cerulean, nice colour and useful for early stages in a painting when you want it thinner and translucent.
Raw Umber this used to be a favourite earth it's great for mixing with other paint to mute colours down also a greeny earth colour good for tree mixes.

Whites are important as we use so much of them in oil painting. I find Jackson Artist Titanium white good, and excellent value. Warm White is useful when you want a warm tint instead of the Titanium cool. Zinc is new for me, it's good for tinting a mix without loosing the colour to milkiness.

The ridged paint tubes - I have a tool to get all the paint out the tube! I will put on another equipment post.

I have written the next equipment post on brushes do sign up to receive my posts so you don't miss the next one. If this post has been helpful please leave a comment, and if you have any questions I welcome feedback. Thank you, Clare

#269 'On the River Dart, Devon' 8x10"

We have just spent a long weekend down in Devon visiting with a friend I did a couple of paintings but it was more of a social visit. 
Hated the first painting I did! Fussy, overworked, not confident, it was an off painting day and not easy as I was on display in a busy harbour!

This one was second,  easier in some ways although when I arrived it was beautiful light with the river snaking down to the Dartmouth estuary. But the light went quickly to grey and the river disappeared on the low tide!  Still a nice area to paint, reminded me of the Lake District. 
I painted it with the tide half in otherwise the whole scene is mud! 
I take my photos with my iphone which works well but it does pump up the colour and tone contrast so the yellow is popping out more than it should.

Here is a picture of my palette before I started painting, with the main colours mixed I can then mix colours together as I'm painting for subtle nuances and a harmonious palette.