The final official Spring meeting of Avon Valley Artists took place last Thursday. We will still meet during the Summer but there won't be a programme - just do your own thing, either indoors or outdoors. The subject was `Wrecks and Ruins' - again subject to wide interpretation. Unfortunately I forgot my camera (again) and I wasn't able to photograph the resulting paintings. Sorry about that. It wasn't intentional but the result of me missing several recent meetings and losing my routine.
15" x 11" Wrecked Mitchell WW2 Bomber
For `wrecks and ruins' I came up with a reference of a crashed B 25 Mitchell bomber, probably in the New Guinea area. New Guinea and the Pacific islands are still awash with wrecks from World War Two and efforts are still being made to reclaim parts of them for museum exhibition or - if still moderately intact - for full restoration. Judging by the state of it - stripped of parts and the original paint having vanished - I'd say it was taken post-war but exactly when I don't know. Several bomb groups of the Fifth Air Force were equipped with Mitchells, and operated from June 1943, initially from Port Moresby, until the end of the war. They were renowned for their very colourful `nose' art, none of which is visible here so I could be mistaken..
I first made an accurate but not super detailed drawing then began to paint. I used my Escoda 1212 travel brushes, sizes 8 and 12, together with a Rosemary retractable rigger and an Isabey Size 6 retractable. Mostly the larger brushes. For the greens I used various mixes of Viridian, Hookers Green, Sap Green plus a couple of mixes with Cobalt Blue and yellow. The darks were mixtures of Ultramarine, Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber plus Quinacridone Rose (PV19) and Viridian (PG17). The other blues are Cerulean and Cyan Blue (PB15:3). To warm things up a little I added Quinacridone Gold (DS PO49) and Quinacridone Rust (Graham PO48). I also used Raw Umber and Raw Sienna. I am quite pleased with the result as I feel I painted it with more freedom. Far too many colours? It doesn't look like that to me so who knows? I'm beginning to think the benefits of my most recent Charles Reid workshop has been to free me up, where I was previously tending to tighten up. I'm not sure what the paper is as it was done on the reverse side of a discarded painting - it could be Centenaire. The total time was just over an hour with breaks.
11 comments:
This is a great painting Peter! Very good, bet you are pleased with it, I do hope so, you should be :)
Yes, you are freed up, it´s a real good one! When you are still feeling there is something not exactly right it´s the heaven: towards earth it gets lighter.
Too many colours? Just right it seems to me.
Congratulations :-)
(öhm. that´s my humble opinion, i forgot to add)
Thank you Ann. I am rather pleased with it.
Thanks for comments Maike. Appreciated.
I think this is terrific Peter and one of your best... not too many colours at all they look pleasing and harmonious.... looks like you gained lots from the workshop!!
Thanks a lot Judith. I appreciate your comments. This was an offbeat subject but it seems to have worked. I did paint it with considerable freedom.
As you said, this is very loose and it looks great Peter. The plane fits very nicely into the foliage. Well done.
Thanks for comments Ray. I wondered if you'd like this one!
Can't make up my mind whether its sad or a relief when we finish our set programme, but this is a good painting to finish on Peter.
A bit of both Jan! Thanks for comments. The weather looks set to be good on Thursday so maybe painting outside?
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