The view from the top
Of a hill in a small town
Was another hill.
I find Dunedin’s beautiful architecture endlessly interesting ~ there’s so much character and variety in those houses… and you know how I love to paint trees!
What Goes Around…
New Zealand
Small Paintings of Big Trees
Giants with branches
That try but never quite touch
The scattered blue sky.
I never get tired of painting the Hamurana Springs redwoods and have plans to paint larger versions of these small studies in the not too distant future. I have so many paintings planned though (I’ve just bought half a dozen canvases because the sales are on ~ and I’m about to buy half a dozen more), I think these two may have to wait until next year. So if it’s a little quiet on the blog, it’s only because I’m busy painting.
“Making a different mistake every day is not only acceptable, it is the definition of progress.”
Robert Brault
After the Rain (mini version)
A mini version of an older painting, ‘After the Rain (mini)’ has been finished with my new favourite varnish: cold wax medium. Yummy!
Sundays
The Pleasant Valley Sundays were painted to exhibit at this year’s Pegasus Bay Art Show and are based on a view of Port Chalmers from the Lady Thorn Rhododendron Dell lookout on a misty summer’s day in 2017 (the photograph below).
“I used to think I knew all the answers. Then I thought I knew maybe a few of the answers. Now I’m not even sure I understand the questions. Nobody knows anything.”
Pete Nelson
I had a plan and I had time. I thought I had time. I had three months and then two… and then two weeks… two days… and when I ran out of time, I stopped.
For your viewing pleasure, I have put together three slideshows of the key stages in each painting’s progress:
WIP 1 ~ charcoal drawing / basic composition
WIP 2 ~ tonal underpainting to determine values
WIP 3 ~ exploring colours and resolving issues
Final ~ “A painting is never finished — it simply stops in interesting places.” Paul Gardner
Pleasant Valley Sunday I
Finding the shapes in the middle group of trees and adding one final pale blue glaze to the water and distant hills (in the final image) really made the whole landscape ‘pop’ ~ and then, with a careful scattering of power poles, I stopped. This style became the template for the other two paintings.
In case you’re curious (and I certainly was), the big red building in the foreground is Buffalo Lodge, a turn-of-the century hall that has been transformed into accommodation and listed with Airbnb New Zealand. We will definitely be checking it out next time we visit Dunedin.
Pleasant Valley Sunday II
The variety of houses in the second painting was a joy to behold. I initially thought the pointy building in the middle was a café because it didn’t look like any of the surrounding houses. In reality, however, it is a delightfully unusual residential property (online research is a wonderful thing). The roof is not conical and is not quite as tall as I’ve painted it ~ but that’s how it wanted to be painted and so that’s how it is.
Pleasant Valley Sunday III
The beautiful character house in the lower left corner (above) is one of my favourites in the Pleasant Valley Sunday series. I looked this one up online too. The house, built in 1907, was for sale last year. No doubt it sold for a little more spare change than we would’ve had available. Still, it’s nice to dream.
So… more trees, more houses ~ a splash of orange light and a bend in the road, deep purple shadows and a few more power poles. Three paintings completed. Or one triptych. Either way, that was quite a mission.
It took a little over six weeks (six weeks of actual painting time) to finish all three. A lot of thought went into finding a sort of architectural abstraction in the trees and also into limiting the amount of detail in the buildings so that the manmade appeared more organic and vice versa. If it hadn’t been for the deadline of the art show, I would probably still be painting them.
Beyond the Tree Line
‘Beyond the Tree Line’ is one of two paintings I started in March 2021. Both paintings had such strong beginnings that I decided to put them to one side and concentrate on other things for a few weeks. The plan was to wait until I had a very clear sense of what to do with them (i.e. and to not be afraid of ruining them). Two and a half years later, I finally found the courage to tackle Tree Line. And I’m very glad I did. The first WIP (work in progress) photo below is from 2021. The other 2021 painting is still waiting patiently…
This South Island landscape is one I first painted in 2017 with sheep. I decided to paint this one without.
Pegasus Bay Art Show 2023
It’s officially the first day of spring here in New Zealand and it’s raining art shows. Following on from a successful exhibition at The Bridge Hub in August, last night we set up for the Pegasus Bay Art Show.
My panel this year includes four brand new paintings. And by “brand new” I mean that I finished painting them over the weekend. When I signed up to take part, I only had two paintings that met the criteria (which included that artworks be less than three years old). Silly me, I thought that three months would be enough time to sort that out… but then I decided to exhibit at The Bridge and paint three new paintings for that show. Time was ticking. Ticking. Ticking.
It was the Pleasant Valley Sundays (the three square landscapes, bottom left) that almost broke me. But I made it. Just. I’ll write more about them and the new treescape painting (top left) and show you some WIPs in my next two posts.
The Pegasus Bay Art Show is open Saturday and Sunday with more than 70 artists taking part this year. And tonight is opening night. Exciting!
Anna Cull ~ Art & Music 