New Hampshire Workshop, Day 2

The excellent weather continues in Goffstown. We spent the entire day yesterday at Kimball Pond, painting a marsh that had some good fall color along the edge. Although it's a bit early for fall color in this area - we're about a half-hour from Manchester - the swamp maples have turned a stunning, cherry-red.

When I teach a workshop that is both oil and pastel, I work in pastel one day and in oil the next, alternating media each day. (I encourage students, though, to stick with just one medium.) If I start off in pastel the first day, I make sure the oil painters aren't left out, and if I start in oil, I make sure the pastel painters aren't left out. I teach an approach to painting that works for all opaque media. Plus, each can learn from the other, and the students enjoy the variety. This day I worked in oil.

In this painting, the swamp maples were in the distance. Although the color was bright and engaging, it still needed to read as being distant. I started off by making the reds and oranges dark in value, almost the same value as the hill just behind it. I "sneaked up" on the brilliance by incrementally making the color richer and brighter until it reached a level that worked. This is a 9x12 done on a panel prepped with Winsor & Newton Oil Primer.