This painting was deceptively difficult. The idea was to create a misty landscape and imbue it with a golden glow by a glazing it with Quinacridone Gold. I had a tough time getting a good balance between soft and hard edges as witnessed by my first attempt. I got the color stuck in some places again due to lack of water and the foreground branches are too regular and distracting.
Misty American River, first attempt
In my defense, I’m painting this on our boat in an even smaller space than normal because hubby’s tools are everywhere. Just a 3×2 space on the table and I only have my travel palettes which only have at most a 4” square mixing area. Birgit’s work involves large puddles of paint, so I’m making do fairly well.
Still, I thought I could do better. So I concentrated more on creating a focal area on the upper left bank and worked harder to get the rest of the painting to flow freely. I like this version much better, although I still don’t like my foreground branches in the lower right. Chalk that up to loss of patience; if I did this again, I would sketch that area a bit more specifically since the darkness of that area really makes it prominent- it needs more attention to the details to look right.
This is one of those paintings that looks better from a distance.
Golden Glow on the American River, Sacramento, 2nd attempt
