Since I returned from my visit back to South Africa over Christmas, I have been enjoying re-creating the feeling of being in the mountains. This painting called Afternoon Light - Drakensberg is now finished. Over the last few weeks I have shared small WIP details now I am happy to share the completed painting.
Afternoon Light - Drakensberg - oil on canvas 900mm x 900mm
The painting is quite large - 900mm x 900mm and painted in oil on canvas. It’s one of those rare paintings that seemed to go smoothly from the very beginning. It’s not often that an artist gets into that special state of ‘flow’. Being able to retain this state over a few weeks is also rare.
There are very few parts that were repainted or that posed problems.
Early on I realised that the very loose mountain ridge in the underpainting needed to be re-positioned and redrawn but otherwise the painting progressed without too much of a struggle.
(Disclaimer - usually many parts of any painting will have numerous layers and will have problems that need solving)
I thought it would be interesting to share a few progress photos:
Bright underpainting - 7th February 2018
Later the same morning...an outline of the mountains and a few dark areas have been added.
10th February
14th February - more work on the dark shadows of the foreground and rocks - preparation for the grass to come...
28th February - more detail on the rocks and the addition of the sunlit grass. The mountain range now has a layer of haze moving them more into the distance.
It was so hard to wait; to be patient; to complete the under-painting of the dark areas before painting the grass over the dry layers.
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