oak wood water

walk to site video clip : two summers ago I came across a small waterfall in a wooded gorge. Looking up, water came out of a green sky, split, spread out in broken light and dissapeared behind rocks below.

In 2009 I went back to start a painting.

video clip, global and local colours : Each colour we see is effected by the colours in its locality. For example a grey looks pinkish next to green. But as we look about a scene we also compare colours that are distant from each other.

colour perception is dynamic: every area has a range of possible colours - it all depends on the movement of the eye. To bring some of this richness to the painting, I make two sets of studies, global and local.

Two or more studies for the same area means there is more than one colour available for unique things. This conscious interest in the instability of colour perception can be traced back to Cezanne. I think it can be taken up to refresh our sense of seeing nature.

four local colour studies

making the painting :

video clip , local effects : looking into the scene to pick out local colours and events

first underpainting on canvas

buliding up glaze base layers : each zone begins a reflecting layer for transparent coloured glazes of a different colour. Resulting colours will be a richer than a single opaque mix.