A Touch of Gold
The Goulburn River at Seymour in Victoria was chosen by the artist as the setting for this peaceful landscape work rendered in intense pastels.
For this demonstration, I chose to paint a scene of the Goulburn River, Seymour. Water is one of my favourite subjects. I obtained the reference material on a warm summer evening just as the sun was going down, and the mosquitoes were coming out! I took some reference photographs, and then sat beside the river and made a few small sketches with my pastels mainly to establish what colours I would use (working very quickly before the light disappeared).
In the studio I attached a sheet of burgundy Colourfix paper (made by Art Spectrum) to my easel. I also attached a sheet of paper towel to the board beside my paper (this was helpful to give the pastels a quick swipe to clean them as I worked).
I have a wide range of pastels. For this piece I used Art Spectrum, Schminke, Lukas, Unison, and a couple of my own ‘hand-made’ pastels (leftover pastel pieces crushed to a powder with a pestle and mortar, with a small amount of water added, rolled into a pastel shape, placed in foil and put in the oven to dry – see Insight article).
MATERIALS
• Colour fix papper
• Selected artists' pastels
STEP ONE
I did a minimal drawing with a light blue pastel pencil to establish the overall composition: and the line of the river bank and placement of trees.
STEP TWO
I very loosely applied the sky colours using cool blue tones at the top, medium blue tones in the centre and warmer pinks towards the horizon. I tend to think about warm and cool colours, rather than 'light and dark. I worked from the top to the bottom of my painting to avoid smudging.
STEP THREE
The sky colours were blended together using the side of my hand, and fingers. I added a bit more pastel where necessary to get a smooth underpainting.
STEP FOUR
I began to block in the trees using a range of blues, greens, a warm burgundy. a red, a warm apricot, and a couple of yellows and golds. I also began to add the darkest tones to the river.
STEP FIVE
I started to block in the closer trees and added some of the trunks and branches.
STEP SIX
I repeated the darkest tree colours and a splash of the sky colour to the nver, and lightened up the trees that were further away (to add some depth) by scumbling a cool lilac colour over the top. I felt that this was roughly the halfway mark, so I gave a light spray with a pastel fixative to prevent the underpainting from smudging.
STEP SEVEN
I was really beginning to enjoy myself at this stage! I established the blight golden highlighted part of the painting where the sun was hitting the river bank (winch attracted me to this scene in the first instance). I added more golden highlights to the trees and to the reflections in the river. I also worked on the nee trunks and branches. using warm colours against the dark areas and cool colours against the light areas to g INV the impression of how the evening light was himng the trees.
STEP EIGHT
I continued to work on establishing the contrast between the foreground trees