Golden Fall

 "Golden Fall"

Its' amazing how one painting or idea can quickly lead to many more. Having just painted a quick autumn study of the view from my studio window, as seen in my previous blog post,  I was reluctant to put my brushes down.  In fact today was one of those rare days when as much as I wanted to paint my energy level was low that racing to my studio wasn't really my priority. But once here, in my studio, surrounded by my favourite colours and the autumn foliage facing me as I looked outside it was easy to escape via colour into my happy, peaceful zone.

The real sky here looks almost white this afternoon. Empty of colour , and so I worked on white paper. Leaving this empty space as my backdrop. I looked at all the colours I can see on the trees outside and placed dots of colour to match across the upper part of my new painting. I then splattered these same colours, on top of my initial colour application with my toothbrush, to hint at separate small leaves in the distance.

I added tree trunks next and allowed all the colours to flow downwards for reflections in the water below. Of course it is easy for me to paint this scene as I am working from life. This is the view from my studio window. Where my inspiration is coming from. Leaves are falling and floating by on the waters' surface. Hence the stronger small dots of colour in the foreground of my work. To represent these falling leaves.

It is so relaxing sitting, studying colour , imagining how you would paint what you see and the many different ways in which you can. As I have so much on at the moment and little free time, to sit and paint simple landscapes without worrying about the results is just wonderful.

As I painted the above scene I couldn't help but think about all the incredible trees I saw as we drove around Lake Tahoe while I was teaching there recently. My jaw dropped at the breathtaking beauty before me on many occasions on my visit there. And so, inspired by Lake Tahoe is the below painting. From my imagination, simply created for me to unwind this afternoon.

"Reflections"

Artists Tip

 On days when you feel you can't or don't want to paint, grab a few scraps of paper and just allow colour to flow across them. Soon you , like me, won't be able to put your brushes down and you'll keep painting with your work getting better and better each time you pick up your brushes.

Remember

Never give up!

Happy painting!

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