Atlantic ocean 2 oil on paper.
Atlantic ocean 2 oil on paper.
Louise Balaam - Monthly Landscape Painting
Skills
Posted on
May 31, 2024
← I have long admired Joan Eardley’s work. This cold wet day was the ideal opportunity to break out the soft pastels and attempt to transcribe a couple of her pastel studies. It’s been a long time since a worked in soft pastel; I found this exercise absorbing so definitely switched on the right side of my brain.
A remembered sky from a far too infrequent trip to the Pyrenees (they’re only an hour from home), a breeze sending clouds skywards in the early evening light. I like the atmosphere of this – the light pooling on the landscape, the hazy mountains receding into the distance. I think the land is more successful than some of my earlier paintings, and I like the sweep of couds against the darkening sky and the texture of the sky. But….I’m not convinced by the tonal qualities of the main clouds, I still struggle with this ( must spend a week just mixing colours & playing), and I still feel I’m timid with brush marks & quantity of paint for the big clouds where I think it needs to be bolder. It doesn’t quite have the fullness & luciousness that I’d like…hope you understand that? →
Thanks Louise I appreciate your comment I was afraid to mess it up and I put the brush down.
Interesting to compare this with your earlier sketch Maura, a very good exercise to do two versions and compare them. For me this one needs a little more at the bottom to give a sense of the space.