Here is the second in my ‘roads and signs’ series of landscapes based on photographs I’ve taken over the years as a passenger, being driven from one place to another along Canterbury’s beautiful winding roads but rarely having the opportunity to stop and take a proper photo. I started turning some of my slightly random through-the-window shots into paintings last year and I suspect I’ll continue to do more again this year.

‘Summer Hills’ is a landscape somewhere on the road from Akaroa to Christchurch and very near the location of the painting in my previous post. I’ve included the original photograph, the initial study and several WIP images below:

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You may be able to tell from the WIPs that I wasn’t entirely sure what to do with the lower half of the painting — the sky was pretty much there from day one but the foreground was another story. I solved it in the end by mixing a really bright lime green and a vivid blue and just ‘going for it’ (I believe that’s the technical term).