Hi there!
I’m currently in New Zealand with Chontele. We are having a very late honeymoon while my brother and his fiancee look after our little one.
While it’s not a work trip, I can’t help but take a few sneaky reference photos. Every trip here fills up my inspiration hub for years. There’s just something different about the New Zealand landscape. The colors have an extra “pop” that I haven’t seen elsewhere.
When we first landed, Chontele commented how she now understands the vibrant colors in my earlier New Zealand paintings. It’s her first time here and she didn’t realize the colors really are that vivid and clean; it wasn’t me exercising my artist license.
It must have something to do with the unique combination of weather, temperature, light and other factors that are impossible to replicate elsewhere. I liken it to an artist’s style. There are countless factors that go into an artist’s style and make it look the way it does. The way they hold their brush, the way they make strokes, their little tendencies and preferences, how they make decisions, etc. Someone may be able to broadly mimic an artist’s style, but no one can perfectly replicate it. There will only ever be one Monet or Sargent or Caravaggio.
I’ll send through the reference photos when I get back in the studio. I have some good ones for you to paint from. In the meantime, you can get access to my entire reference photo library here for a small fee.
Happy painting!
Dan Scott
Draw Paint Academy
PS. Below is one photo from the Queenstown Gardens we visited today. Look at those colors!
