This is pretty typical of the way I block in a painting. Very big shapes and very rough suggestions of where things can be. All I'm trying to do is feel the weight of the whole surface and try to search out a visual balance. All is kept very scrubby.
This is a close-up to show how simply things are blocked. I'm using a fairly large, like a size 10, flat bristle brush here. This brush is great for large bold strokes and used on it's edge or side or tip, much smaller marks can be made.
Now with all the different marks made on the horizon, the space is defined for the first time.
With this addition of the tree line, I'm getting a good feeling of how this space and painting will progress.
I'm at the 2.5 to 3 hour mark which is typical for a painting of this size, 30x40 inches. Now it's time to look at the painting and assess what needs to be done.
At this point, virtually everything in the painting is blocked-in accept for the dark cloud at the top. Now it's a matter of slowing down to describe each form, richness of color and the texture of the paint is all to be considered. This is roughly five hours into the painting and a good time to stop. I will let things set up a little, perhaps skip a day and then proceed to finish.
Winter Splendor, oil/panel, 30x40
The addition of the cloud at the top was something that I had been thinking about the whole way through but decided to wait until the very end so I could lay it in as a semi-opaque glaze over very dry color. The painting is basically done but over the next several weeks I'll pick at it like a dog with a bone.
This painting is currently being exhibited in my show,
Ambient Notes, at
Travis Gallery in New Hope, PA.
If you'd like to learn more about my working process in great detail, I'm offering a 5 hour oil painting demo DVD of another painting titled,
River Bend, available on my website
www.peterfiore.com/dvd.
