8/26/2013

Congratulations to the new owners of my current Elk painting; John and Theresa Barr! I'm thrilled this piece will be joining 'Salmon for Lunch' and 'Sojourner' in your home...

Here is the latest update, hopefully in a week or so I will be able to start on the Elk himself...

The Elk Painting

After some time of prep work for my new elk painting, I have finally begun to make some progress over the last week! Although I don't usually do the background first, this time I felt compelled to because of the magnificient antlers interrupting my sky space, which would have made the brushwork difficult in the reverse ;-) Thanks to my practise with clouds in 'Ingonyama' and mountains in 'Sierra Encounter' I have moved quite speedily so far...

Once the mountains are completed I will carry on working my way down the painting, covering hills with trees, closer trees and bushes and lastly the grass covered meadow. It seems to be a great build up towards the elk himself, which is making me quite excited to reach that point... of course the main subject is always my favourite - he will bring the painting to life!

While we wait for the climax, here are some background progress shots...

Cougar in the Snow

"Cougar in theSnow has finally been completed! I have enjoyed the enormous challange of the snow and feel like I have added another set of skills to my belt because of it... I no longer dread the 'how to' of painting snow, I have learnt the subtlety of hues involved, which consist mostly of the colors 'Pthalo Blue', 'Permanent Rose' and 'Ultramarine Blue' in this particular painting.

Next up I will be painting an Elk on a 24x24" canvas, drawing my inspiration from the photographs of Tom Blandford; nature and wildlife photographer.