Pond Trio

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A Trio of Three Ponds

Interestingly enough, both of my oil paintings are not displayed together in my house. Mud Valley Reflections joined a number of my Amish country paintings in our living room (Walk in Mud Valley, The Way Home, and Walking Home). On the other hand, Fish Pond Shed found its place in the kitchen in an interesting trio of paintings. It matched my painting Water Lily Lake nicely: though the ponds are different, the colors are the same. I also had another small painting of the same pond as in Fish Pond Shed. You can see it up close below. It was a bit challenging to fit such a horizontal scene into a vertical frame! I really like how the light in the sky and water came out though. And the ripples in the pond - those are especially pretty I think. The farm and shed, well, they're decent enough. Anyway, this painting completed the trio nicely. I was happy to be done with those messy oil paints!

Fish Pond Study

Fish Pond Shed 2

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Final Touches

After a little bit more work, my second oil painting was finally finished. Did you think everything was complete on the building in my last picture? Look again. For some reason, I forgot to paint the porch roof post shadows at the same time as the rest of the shading on the building! Well, I had to mix up more paint (which does not exactly match) and put those shadows in. In fact, I still forgot to put them in on the building in the reflection! Oh, well. Then I added some more highlights in the trees, and also along the pond edge. The yellow ochre on the bushes around the pond ties in with the field and adds some interest. I'm actually pretty happy with how it came out.

Fish Pond Shed 1

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Beginning

Encouraged by the relative success of my first painting in oils, I embarked on another. At this point I was actually taking a class every week in oil painting. So I chose a pretty ambitious picture to try. This scene is actually from the same set of fish ponds, and focuses on the little white shed where the fish keeper stored his fish supplies and feed. For whatever reason, I did not take any pictures until this stage, probably the third layer of oils.

I began with light blue sky, repeated in the water but going down into a deeper blue. The trees were a background of mahogany browns, highlighted in an almost purplish-red on the tree tops. The grass, in turn, came out a range of ochre-tinted greens, with a plain ochre strip midway back. This made for a very interesting combination of colors in the painting, one which I was not too thrilled with. But my art teacher seemed to be happy with the bold use of color, and I went on a painted in the shed. Getting those rooflines straight was something else.

Mud Valley Reflections 4

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Finished Painting

Now for the finishing touches. I was itching to paint the red tree leaves in the front, but I knew I had to completely finish the rest of the painting first. If anything behind was still wet, the tree leaves would get muddy and smudged. First I added a few more highlights on the trees and grass, as well as their corresponding reflections. Next came the cows - and they were not easy to create. Some of them ended up looking more like train cars than four-legged animals! After making sure that was dry, I started in on the tree. It was really challenging since I knew that once I put the paint down, it would be really hard to remove it again! I built up the leaves with dark reds and maroons, then added brighter brick red on top. I think the red tree adds a nice frame on the picture without being too intense for the scene. See what you think of it compared to my watercolor of the same scene right here.

Mud Valley Reflections 3

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Adding Detail

After applying that previous layer of paint, I had to wait for it to dry. In contrast to fast-drying acrylic paints (literally five minutes), oils are incredibly slow. I mean, depending on the thickness and type of paint, oils can take from two days to a week to dry completely. It's definitely not a project for an afternoon sitting! While this is a benefit for blending and what not, it can test your patience as you wait to continue the painting. The messy factor can also be an issue, especially if you have to transport the wet painting home in a car! Well, my paint was dry within a week, and I prepared to add more detail to my painting. The barns were done in a grayscale from black to white, with the characteristic blue-green roof. The fence and tiny martin houses were even more difficult, given that I did not have a thin enough brush. They came out in that inexact, country style.

Mud Valley Reflections 2

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Second Layer

After the first wash of oils had dried, I was ready to continue. I mixed full-strength oils in bolder colors to apply over the corresponding areas of the wash. The grass came out in smooth, brilliant shades of green, and the sky was a mixture of white and light blue. The trees, on the other hand, needed more texture. I loaded a scruffy-type brush with several shades of paint and dabbed it on, blending the leaves into the sky at the top. This is the beauty of oils: because they dry very slowly, you can accomplish a lot more blending. I could paint the sky and half an hour later still blend the tree leaves into it. You can especially see this effect in the grass. I think this blending ability produces a more professional, uniform painting in the end. Another benefit of oils is the brilliant, lasting colors that can be achieved. Acrylics just aren't as glossy, pigmented, or rich.

Mud Valley Reflections 1

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Beginning in Oils

Here is the beginning of another painting. Only this time, it's not the same old acrylic paint to which I am so loyal. After much persuasive talk from various artist acquaintances, I finally gave in and decided to try painting in oils. It's much more complicated than it sounds. I pretty much had to buy a whole new set of art supplies: oil paints (of course), paint brushes with oil-resistant glue holding the bristles in, and oil-quality canvas that wouldn't dissolve or become brittle under the oil chemicals. And instead of rinsing my brushes with water, I needed a special turpentine solution that would remove the oily paints. After cleaning my brushes, all the dirty paper towels had to be burned to prevent spontaneous combustion, and wet painting carefully transported home. I soon concluded that oils were, in a word, very messy. But still worth a try.

 

So here we go. To begin, I "watered" the paint down using a special thinner for oils, and applied a wash to cover the entire canvas. I tried to get the light and dark tones placed correctly, even if the colors were a bit off. This is based off a photograph, which I actually used for a watercolor a while back. You can check it out right here, and compare as the painting progresses.