TWIN CREEK

Prints of this painting can be purchased here now: http://www.inprnt.com/gallery/jeremiahjolliff/

This is an Original Oil Painting executed en plein air by Fine Artist Jeremiah Jolliff

Most landscape paintings that are created en plein air tend to have thin paint in the areas of the sky and background with the paint becoming more thick in the foreground.  However, when creating this work, the opposite was true.  Since the dense foliage of the trees and the rocky creek bank were in the background and the shallow water of the creek were in the foreground, it became apparent that a creative handling of the paint would be in order.

Sometimes in landscape painting outdoors it becomes necessary to try new things and commit to a new process without due regard to the eventual outcome.  I had to take quite a leap of faith in abilities here because it was a totally intimidating order.  Usually, I have the luxury of meandering into a painting by applying thin paint into the sky without to much commitment.  I felt that starting out directly with thick paint would prove to be unwieldy and that I might end up with a huge pile of mud.

The most enjoyable aspect of creating this landscape painting was at the very end.  In several other posts I have made mention of L. Birge Harrison and his book Landscape Painting.  The simple vibrational effect “is obtained by means of a cool overtone painted freshly into a warm undertone, care being taken not to mix or bland the two coats and not to cover up completely the undertone, rather letting it show through brokenly all over the canvas; the vibration being secured, naturally, by the separate play of the warm and cold notes.”  For example, in this painting it is easily seen how to make use of this technique especially in the foreground where the cool currents of the creek are interwoven with the warm undertone.  The undertone is applied to the Canvas Panels using Winsor & Newton Raw Sienna thinned down to a very aqueous consistency using Winsor & Newton Distilled Turpentine.

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