Share to XI just put the finishing touches on this New Zealand painting:
Below is the reference photo I painted from. I took this from our latest family trip to Queenstown. Feel free to paint it yourself. Just let us know how you go. You can download a high-resolution version here. (You can get access to all my reference photos here if interested.)
I painted on an 18 by 24 inch stretched canvas. I haven’t painted on canvas in a fair while, as I have been almost exclusively painting on hard Ampersand Gessobord. Whilst I like the sturdiness of Gessobord, there’s something unique about painting on canvas. There’s a gentleness to it. With each stroke, the canvas gives way and absorbs some of the pressure. I missed that feeling.
I painted fast and with large brushes. The painting was basically complete within 2 hours. It took me longer to just take a decent photo of it!
The water is the focal point. In person, it glowed gold and silver and had a silky appearance. It looked like a satin dress in a Sargent painting. The rest of the scene is a little vague and hazy, as you would expect on a late-afternoon stroll before the sun goes down.
In the distance, you can see the Queenstown center, and a person stands by the shore looking out over the water. The main challenge was to convey the person and all the buildings and activity in the background with vague and hazy brushwork. I didn’t overthink it. I painted these parts fast and without hesitation. This worked well. In other paintings, I have fallen into the trap of being too careful and timid with the complex parts.
I like to believe the viewer can feel what state of mind you were in as you painted. If you feel tight and cautious as you paint, the viewer will probably feel that. But if you feel confident and decisive, they will feel that too.
Here are some progress shots of the painting:
And here are some close-ups of the detail and brushwork:
Happy painting!
Dan Scott
Draw Paint Academy
