Small to Big

The finished painting. "Aloha" 31x23" Oil on Canvas.

Wednesday 8th May

Thursday 9th May

Back home now from California I'm working in the studio on creating a bigger painting of a plein air piece I painted in Hawaii last year which is 11x14" and I'm working on a 31x23" canvas now.

I've been wanting to do a larger painting of this for some time because I love the subject and I guess I've also been inspired by the fact that we went and bought a VW campervan a few days ago, not this type sadly, but a newer model with the aim of seeing and painting more of my own wonderful country as well as enjoying some great family holidays in it.

I'll keep posting progress shots as this one develops. The main change I'm making to the design from the original plein air piece is to bring the van slightly forward to make it the star player and let the shop be secondary rather than being equal to each other. That turned out to be trickier than I thought and it took me a whole half day to get the drawing right yesterday. Symmetrical objects in perspective - tricky! Give me a tree any day. Normally I bring a whole painting up together but I figured with this one it'd be better to get the van done first. It's still not quite finished though.

Friday 10th May

Getting there. A few days to go yet. Using just walnut oil as the medium is nice as the paint stays wet for many days.

Finished!

The finished painting. "Aloha" 31x23" Oil on Canvas.

Detail.

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Comment by Rita Long on July 24, 2013 at 15:12: Richard, my favorite painting!!

Comment by David DEntremont on June 30, 2013 at 1:51: Beautiful Richard!I love all the details made on the VW. The mirrors and variations of red and white really make it Pop.

You've captured the try feeling of hawaii, it makes me feel I'm back there again. I think adding the surfer with board definitely makes the painting. Good Idea.

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on May 12, 2013 at 2:56: Coming along nicely Richard; I agree with Matt--Take the left hand white line out of the picture and put some road shoulder in there; that white line on the left wants to take my eye out of the picture. I like the balance of your red objects but would subordinate the reds on the right a little more to emphasize the van a little more. Great eye-stopper with the power pole on the right; dull the reds to the right of the pole to make the stop more effective. Really a nice start! Stu

Comment by Matt Connors on May 11, 2013 at 10:33: Love the subject and the way you handled it. Hope you are not driving in Hawaii because you are on the wrong side of the road.

Comment by Sharon Repple on May 10, 2013 at 14:55: Absolutely fantastic start, reds are so rich and the perspective looks great, reminds me of the reason I take your workshops