Rush Creek

oil 8" by 10" on textured panel

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Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on January 18, 2013 at 15:52: Thank you Pauline and Jessica. St

Comment by Pauline Le Merle on January 18, 2013 at 3:29: Lovely, very quiet and serene composition Stu. Love the way the path leads you in and then throws your vision left. You certainly have a strong style running through your work . I like how you have put the grasses down in the righthand corner and made them darker and subordinate which makes the path sneak in hardly noticed, nice touch...very clever well done you :-))

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on January 17, 2013 at 16:55: Michael, thanks for the compliments and the help. The cooler gray path was needed to set off the warm, dry grasses without a large value shift; further back, I could warm up the path against the cooler gray-green grasses. When I pumped up the color in the grasses, the warm gray path didn't look good. My little tree on the right side of the path kind of gets lost. I had to lighten the sky because I had it too dark and too complex. This was a lot of work for an 8" by 10" painting, and I think I overworked it a little; but simplification is not my strong suit. Linda thank you very much also for the compliments. I started painting when I was 9 and you can see from my picture that I am a little older than that now. I did paint some dark under the grasses and used a liner brush for a lot of the tall spikes with various colors. I was trying to show the tallness of the grass with the brush strokes. Like anything else, a little practice makes it seem easier. I don't paint with a lot of vibrant color; I am much more of a tonalist. Stu

Comment by Linda L. Kano on January 17, 2013 at 16:35: From this painting and others I've seen of your work you have become an accomplished painter. You've probably been painting a long time and it comes easy for you??? Sure wish I could paint tall grasses like this. Did you paint a dark section under the beigh/gold grasses and then let it dry before painting on top of it? I tried doing a lake scene recently and had trouble creating the right colors to get the depth and atmosphere. Like Richard said about beginners, we tend to paint everything too vibrant. So you have inspired me to try it again.

Comment by Michael J. Severin on January 17, 2013 at 10:35: I love this painting Stu!! Great composition with great depth and atmosphere .. all good! I like your variety of earthy greens and the way you handled the dry grass in foreground. This is not meant as a critique, but I was curious as to why you decided to paint the path a cool blue grey at the foreground, and warm grey in the distance? ..it is no biggie to me, but just curious. A very solid painting .. nice job Stu!!!