Painting “Countryside Mist”
Studio Painting – Oil on Canvas Board
Sometime's it's impossible to tell which sketch inspired a painting
All my art begins outdoors. That does not mean there's always a sketch of the exact same scene for every painting.
Created entirely in the studio, this is one of those spontaneous pieces.
As an artist, I'm always alert to the moods and compositions of the countryside. Changing seasons, lighting effects, times of day, but also unchanging compositions, can't always be recorded though.
An effect can disappear before you've got your sketchbook open, or it's not practical to stop to record a scene – I find driving intensely frustrating sometimes.
There was a time when I had to rise extremely early (before dawn) for weeks at a time during several years. I had a long motorway journey ahead of me, you see.
Beautiful ethereal & atmospheric imprint
Driving through the country as the sun rose often betrayed wisps of mist forming and fading. They were always hauntingly beautiful and there was no time or place to stop and sketch.
Animals grazing unconcerned by the natural marvel in their surroundings made it all the more beguiling.
A lifetime of sketching outside has exercised a muscle I can't switch off now (there's great and not-so great sides to that). So anything that catches my artist's brain's attention, imprints itself in what I can only think of as an internal sketchbook.
Ordinary & magically extraordinary
Driving down the motorway at 5 in the morning I witnessed scenes where the ordinary (animals grazing) and extraordinary (mist) sat side by side. I love scenes that are both ordinary and magically extraordinary, so it triggered the muscle to work and imprinted it on my brain.
The brain is a wonderful thing, it's able to pull together long gone sketches (of sheep, trees, and fields, for example), and memories of things seen through artist eyes. From these ingredients it'll create a work of art that began outdoors.