NEWS FROM THE STUDIO- I've been on vacation!

The lack of posts on my blog must make that pretty obvious. It's wonderful to be free of deadlines and committments, but now I'm back in the studio. I have a one-woman show coming up in a couple of months and will need some larger paintings than I've done for a while. I've started a 24x30" canvas depicting a valley in our neighborhood. I have a small 5x7 canvas I'm working from done at the end of spring, just as the hills were turning golden. I'm taking a little license with it, but not too much. I'd like to document it here for those of you who have been asking painting instruction questions.
1. I tone the canvas - in this case with yellow ochre
2. I divide the canvas into quarters, horizontally and vertically - using those squares as guides to transfer the painting. I used burnt sienna to draw the image.
3. The picture above shows the first drawi-in. I'm not happy with the top of the old oak tree, so changed it to this. This is better. The tree now looks like the canvas hasn't sat on it's head.
4. I lay in the beginnings of the trees, using a black green first - with a brush - to build my other and lighter greens on as I begin to shape the clumps of growth with my palette knife. The tulip canvas is 5x7.
I'll continue Tuesday after my just arriving house guests depart. Have a great weekend - and Happy Father's Day!

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." Marcel Proust