The Artist_s Magazine 2016-03__

March 2016 57

for the background underpainting. If I want

a warmer color, I add extra burnt sienna; if I

want a cooler color, I add more ultramarine

blue. Adding a little white into this mixture

turns it to a neutral gray. Whatever the pro-

portions of colors, I keep the value dark, as if

it were a number 8 on a 10-point value scale

with number 10 being the darkest. I use this

simple mixture for most of my underpaintings,

especially for those that will have a lot of

greens in them, which is generally the case

when I’m painting trees. At other times I may

add a dark, cool purple. (See h e Red Barn,

above).

When I use Gamblin Gamsol or Martin F.

Weber Turpenoid as my medium, my under-

painting dries to the touch quickly, usually

after 20 minutes, after which I can continue

painting without fear of the brush sliding on

wet paint.

Often I’m asked whether I ever apply col-

ors to an underpainting that complement the

local colors of my subject. I’ve tried this tech-

nique, and at times it has worked for me, but

at other times I i nd the contrast too extreme.

I prefer my own method, but I encourage

those who have never tried a complementary

underpainting to experiment.

Once the underpainting is complete, I like

to paint from the center of interest out. (I also

like to paint from dark to light and from cool

too warm.) How do I i nd the center of inter-

est? Usually it’s the most obvious and clearest

area of the scene. I then immediately establish

the sharpest contrast of edges within the cen-

ter of interest (good drawing and proportions

are extremely important at this point). With

the values set, I then relate these to the local

colors and paint those colors in. I continue

painting the center of interest until it’s nearly

i nished. Once satisi ed with this area, I paint

everything it touches, working from the center

out to the edges of the canvas. (See Touch of

Spring, above.)

Lost and Found Edges

Understanding the art of lost and found edges

is extremely important in landscape painting.

Lost edges, especially, lend a sense of atmo-

sphere and space (See Spring Mist, page 58).

h ose new to landscape painting sometimes

ABOVE: Touch

of Spring (oil on

linen, 20x24) is a

“portrait” of a willow

tree—the obvious

center of interest

and the part of the

painting I addressed

fi rst. The tree is also

a positive shape

against the quieter,

negative shape of

the sky. To bring out

the warm colors and

textures of the tree

and foreground, I

created a contrast

with a specially

mixed comple-

mentary blue for

the sky, which I

applied opaquely

and without visible

brushstrokes. The

sky resonates but

doesn’t dominate

the painting.