The Kimberley Eucalypts
Colours strong and subtle pay homage to these incredible northern Australian trees.
Medium
Gamsol solvent - one of the safest solvents to use. All the aromatic solvents have been refined out of it, making it safer than any of the aromatic petroleum solvents. It also has a very high flash point.
Brush Clean-up
Cheap baby oil in a container with a grid to allow for pressing the paint out of the brush. Baby oil is conditioning on the brushes and with a basic clean they will stay okay for a couple of days. About once every four days I will give them a good clean with brush cleaner or washing up detergent. A word of warning – it is important to make sure that you wipe the oil out of the brush well before you use it.
STEP ONE
Firstly I draw in my subject with accuracy but no detail. I use thin willow charcoal because it is easy to rub out. Pencil is difficult to remove and painting directly on to the canvas often means a messy drawing with correction lines. The board I chose is a 51 x 61cm, which I felt suited the subject matter of the Kimberley Eucalypts.
I always begin by blocking in my darks, then mid-tones, then lastly my
lights. If I am working on a section of the painting as I am with this one, then the darks of that section go in first. In this case it is the foliage and the darks of the rocks. I have decided to work from the background and the top section of the painting first.
Using a mixture of Sap Green and Burnt Sienna, I block in the foliage, rubbing the edges with a rag so it softens them and also helps keep colours clean when I paint my sky back into the foliage. I then use my dark mix – Burnt Sienna and Blue Black – to define the shadows in the rocks. Using a mix of Transparent Red Oxide (Art
Spectrum,) I then block in the mid tones, giving a warm base. At this stage I have used a rag again to rub out some of the mid tones, giving a natural rock-like texture. It gives me a good base to start forming the rocks in more detail and allows some of the translucent colour to come through.
STEP TWO
I want to work my way down the board. This way I can better judge the tonal value of the shadows in the trees.
At this stage I have put in my basic sky (Titanium White, Ultramarine Blue, Manganese Blue and a touch of Blue
Black), brushing it into the softened edges of the foliage but being careful not to pick up any green. If you do pick up green, wipe your brush or you will end up with a muddy sky. Pay attention to keeping the lower sky a lighter tone than the sky at the top of the board. I then applied a few highlights to the foliage using Sap Green, Australian Red Gold and Cadmium Yellow in various shades. It is important to remember that all greens are not the same and you need variety of colour in your painting. I am always working one edge into the other – the sky into the foliage then the foliage back into the sky.
Having now established where
my tonal value sits, I can begin to paint in my tree trunks – starting with my darks. The shadows in the tree are a variety of colours, so I am using mixtures of Titanium White, Blue Black, Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, Australian Red Gold and a touch of Pilbara Red. Pilbara Red and Blue Black can make a beautiful soft mauve if mixed with care.
Once my shadows on the trunks are established I then carefully brushed in my highlights. For the trunk highlights I have used a mixture of White, Australian Red Gold and Pilbara Red.
STEP THREE
Using the same technique, I can now begin on the next tree trunk. There are
a lot of darker patches of bark on this trunk which I need to pay attention to. Observation of the smaller things is critical in producing a painting that is convincing. Also notice the small blush of reflected light on the left of the tree towards the top.
STEP FOUR
I have now blocked in the darker bark at the base of the tree – paying attention to where the sun is just hitting it and varying the tone. My colours are again Blue Black – Burnt Sienna – Australian Red Gold and a touch of White. I have also added more detail to the shadow area of the trunk. Then I continued on from the rocks down, blocking in some dried grasses and beginning the darks of the red earth.
STEP FIVE
Having formed the curved root at the base of the tree, I have continued through the background coming forward with my light and shade. Again the colours are the same, Blue Black and Burnt Sienna with a touch of Pilbara Red and White for the earth colour in shadow and Australian Red Gold, Burnt Sienna, a touch of White for the sunnier areas. I have also added some Yellow Ochre here. I have painted in a few rocks and sticks to add interest and added a bit more detail to the dried grass at the base of the rock face. At this stage I have also gone on to finalise the background trees, painting in the light and shade of the trunks (Blue Black and White and Australian Red Gold and White), reforming the foliage.
FINAL STEP
The final touches are a lot easier to do when the painting has dried, and it is only at this stage that I will do the last of the touch-ups, making sure that everything looks in balance with lights and shadows. At the last minute I added a bit more shadow on to the twisted root, and part of the foliage. I also want to make sure that I have reflected light where I need it to be, such as the branch at the top of the painting and the underside of the left hand tree. You may also notice that I have painted in a few wispy clouds just to break up the solid blue sky. At this stage ideally I will leave it for a couple of weeks where I can see the painting – what I like to call ‘living with it’. It is surprising what can jump out at you over a period of time. Some future changes can often be so subtle you can barely notice them, but can make a big difference to the feel and the look of the painting.
Galleries: Lost Bear Gallery – Lurline St –
Katoomba, NSW Gallery Beneath, Sirroco Plaza – Mooloolaba, Qld Stirling Fine Art – WA
Web: www.robyncollier.com.au For subscription to monthly newsletter go to home page of web site. Workshops quoted by request.i