Afternoon Shadows

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Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on December 26, 2014 at 2:39

Thanks Li. Stu

Comment by Ningning Li on December 25, 2014 at 17:03

Excellent value control, Beautiful light effect and colour combination. Just love it!!

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on October 16, 2014 at 18:47

Thanks Wanda.  I got a little hung up with the foreground and stuck a lot of stuff in there.  I'm glad you like it.  It was visually very interesting to me but hard to paint.

Comment by Walda Juhl on October 16, 2014 at 12:52

Wow! I really like your plein air pieces! THis one especially, i like. Great texture in the foreground. Beautiful.

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on October 14, 2014 at 21:00

Thanks Ann.  Yeah, that bush is pretty much in the center all right.   The blacks are from ultramarine blue plus burnt sienna and some alizarin crimson and they are pretty dark when viewing the painting.  Frank Serrano is big on value contrast and using your darks to make the lights pop.   I may have overdone it a little in some of these.   His chief criticism of Michael's paintings was that Michael needed to work on values more.   The first morning he had me restate some of my darks and actually mixed them up and showed me on my painting. 

Comment by Ann Turner on October 14, 2014 at 18:42

The light and shadow are very nice on this one, it would be great if that bush hd just grown to the right or left a just a little bit !  I have been studying the darks that define these paintings they seem to be black in the photos. What have you used on your palette to get these darks and when viewing the painting do they appear as dark as in the photo ?

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on October 14, 2014 at 3:34

Yeah, I didn't mention that I just had to put that fence in there to explain the bush and all the trees.   I never jumped that fence because I wasn't sure what was in there.  We saw a bunch of cows, but I wasn't sure there wasn't a bull in there!  Also the instructor told us not to climb the fence (or jump over it)!

Comment by Silvana M Albano on October 14, 2014 at 3:26

Well Stu, I actually like the bush. It makes you jump over the fence!

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on October 14, 2014 at 3:19

Thanks Silvana.  I don't know what compelled me to put that darned bush in the middle; I guess it was the shadows and the two paths of light on either side.  It really detracts from the mountains.   It's very hard when you are out there to simplify and leave out unnecessary elements.  I do think that I got the light and shadows depicted pretty accurately.

Comment by Silvana M Albano on October 14, 2014 at 2:51

This one is great Stu!