A river in India.

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 I decided to try a new painting today. I have two week off before my next round of classes start leaving me with WHOLE DAYS FOR PAINTING. 

I donned my favorite paint-smeared overalls and started studying a photo that had gotten my attention. I can't share the original photo because it was posted in a group I belong to on social media called "Landscape photos for artists". I also flipped the original photo horizontaly and cropped it.

Apparently the original photo was taken in India. I just loved the atmospheric mauvey colors. In addition, the sky in the photo is yellow. Like smoky, hazy yellow. That's kind of a challenge for me, but my previous work gave me some practice in transitioning sky into yellow, so just all yellow should be doable, right?

I decided this could be done with some quick-dry white, alizarin crimson, indian yellow, sap green, and a tiny bit of ultramarine violet. 

 First I had to reconfigure my Artristic Evolve to hold a 16x20" cradled wood board.


 On top of a earth red ground, mixed with white gesso, I laid in the yellow sky and distance hills, and since I was reflecting the same colors, part of the small river. 


And then I immediately forgot to stop recording my progress. I worked on it Saturday, Sunday, and into Monday morning. 

So fast forward to this: 

 I was becoming less enthralled with the distant hill on the right, feeling like it was just too, too much lavender nothingness. So I decided to break up the planes a bit. 

I've gotten in the habit of mixing into my paint a mixture of 2:1 refined linseed oil and odorless MS, which is by no means nothing new, but for me this has been a game changer. I love how glossy and juicy it makes the paint. It's so much more workable. I have no idea what affect it has on drying time; I haven't taken the time to measure.  

 i worked on softening the foliage on the left, and then decided to call it done. 



Final: Where the Water Flows, 16x20" oil on cradled board.



As soon as it's touch dry, I'll go over it with a thin layer of gamvar, for protection.