Interpreting the Landscape - Scorcher

Scorcher

36" x 36"  - acrylic on canvas  - SOLD

Since posting Radiant River  a couple of weeks ago I have continued to experiment with ways to abstract and interpret the landscape and use it as a vehicle for exploring the visual language of painting - colour, composition, value, form, movement and the paint itself. I decided to work with that particular landscape subject again, but in a square format and the result is Scorcher. This is how it evolved over a number of days and many long hours.

 

 I love drawing on a fresh white (that's right - no ground or underpainting here!) canvas with an inktense crayon - they are soft and smudge as you draw and when you wet the lines with water, they explode and smear and drip. I used a red crayon because I wanted a bold, hot colour scheme and so began with reds, pinks and yellows, applying them in big loose strokes.

After that came the hard part - refining the palette, working  on values and making decisions about where this painting was going and how I would get it there. Not as much fun. 

I added surface marks in the form of 'lines', using pastels, inks and acrylic markers. Then more painting. It went from fun and exciting to work and struggle - however -  I am very happy with the final work. Right now I am calling it Scorcher mainly because of the hot pinks and red palette, which reminds me of summer heat waves, and how we used to hear on the radio that "it's going to be a scorcher of a day". Have a good one!

i