Here is the third in my ‘roads and signs’ series. (Please see my earlier posts for the background story.)
The landscape is typical of the stunning scenery as seen from the road between Christchurch and Akaroa. I’ve posted the original photograph, the study and WIP images below:
I didn’t intend to use such a vivid green in the foreground — yes, it’s the same colour that crept into the other two paintings in the series — and now I can’t imagine the painting without it.
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:
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).
I began a series of landscape studies last year based on some of the many (many) photographs I’ve accumulated over the years as a passenger, being driven from one place to another along Canterbury’s beautiful long and winding roads but rarely having the opportunity to stop and take a proper photo. So I have all these images of roads. And signs. I rather like the perspective of these slightly random through-the-window shots. They’re familiar; more like memories of having been somewhere and less like formal compositions carefully considered before painting (although of course they are that too).
First up is ‘Summer Roads’ which was based on a photo taken as we were driving into Takamatua on the road from Akaroa to Christchurch. I’ve posted the original photograph, the study, and a few WIP images below:
Her mission was to focus on the ordinary
and grow the heart of Art.
Children of all ages create in a flurry of activity
forged out of enthusiasm and books:
a secret code for artists and illustrators.
“The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity.” Alberto Giacometti
‘Purple Haze’ is now finished and drying. There’s lots of texture on this one, yet again, but also the suggestion of a different way of working — or perhaps a different way of seeing. It’s almost as if this is two different paintings: the tactile, high-contrast foreground and the hazy, purple hills in the distance. The extra texture wasn’t planned but it happens sometimes when I get lost in the process. The two different styles do combine to give it a wonderful 3D quality though. But my favourite part… my favourite part is the clouds. I feel like I really ‘got’ the clouds.
Anna Cull ~ Art & Music 