Painting Cullin Lake

In July / August 2019 I was fortunate to attend an Artist Retreat through CPAWS ( Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society) 
On day three of the retreat I spent the day on Cullin Lake and painted three studies of the area. This blog post is about the steps I took to create the 36" x 48" painting of Cullin Lake in my studio. 
If you would like to see more about the day of painting on Cullin Lake it can be seen in another blog post here https://www.artwithbonnie.com/blog/day-3-dumoine-river-art-retrea

This was the original photo

This was the picture I used to create the painting - that's why the canoe is a different colour. I could not remember the colour of the canoe but it did not matter because the yellow / orange of the canoe worked with the complimentary colours of the purples in the tress. 

Step 1.  

I start most of my paintings with a value study in one, sometimes two colours. I usually use acrylic ink because they are fluid and transparent. 

Step 2 & 3

I added a second transparent colour to the value study because I wanted to get some darker dark areas. 

Once I established the values I started to block in colour. 

Steps 4 & 5

Once I had all of the colours blocked in I covered the entire piece with a wash of red oxide and yellow oxide. This gives it some continuity and a nice orange glow. 

Then I go back in again blocking in colour. This time, however I am a little more selective about the colours I bring forward. Some are left behind to create more of a sense of depth. 

Steps 6 & 7

Once i got all of the new colours blocked in I had to step back to see what was off. Can you see it? The canoe was to bright, the water was to dark, and the area under the trees was to bright as well. 

I really darkened the area under the trees so only bit of the canoe were visible. I also went into the water and lightened it so the darker areas under the trees would appear even darker. 

This painting and several others as well as a variety of artworks by 18 different artists from the retreat will be for sale in May 2020. Official date coming soon. Current information about my  show, classes and new artwork can be seen on my website at www.artwithbonnie.com