The mountain road

A couple of years ago I went mountain biking in the mountains above De Rust and took the photo which I used as the basis for the following painting.  The location was extremely remote and one of those places where I feel really charged.

Well, I decided to use this location for my latest painting.  In this particular painting I tried to capture the essence of the scene in a “painterly” way where the painting appears rough and somewhat unfinished fro close observation, but where it makes complete sense when observed from a distance.  This is in the style of painters such as Scott L. Christensen.  I hope to continue in this style and develop it further in the next couple of week and months.

Another take on the red hills

In the last week I have taken another angle on the red hills near De Rust in the Klein Karoo.  I am trying to paint every day now and in this painting I attempted to work with different colours, texture and shadows to accentuate the redness of the hills.  The real painting is a little more lively that the photo, but it does capture the essence of the painting.

The read heads

From De Rust to around Calitzdorp in the Klein (Little) Karoo one finds a range of reddish hills.  Depending on the time of day and the lighting conditions these hills can appear yellow (in the morning), light pink (in the middle of the day) and orange changing to red and purple (in the late afternoon).  The features of these hills and the variations of colour and shadows have always captivated my imagination.  With my new found focus on oil paint I have decided to try to capture the essence of the Red Heads (Rooikoppe) of the Klein Karoo on canvas.

Below is my second attempt.  My first attempt was not exactly what I intended to achieve.  I am quite satisfied with this painting as contains a number of technical aspects that I have previously not managed to master.  I could definitely improve on it since that composition is that great, but it does bring a feeling of satisfaction and my post-painting-completion coffee tasted really good as I walked through my painting.

 

Moving over to oil…

And so I finally moved over to oil…  I should have done this a long time ago.  There is something is oil that is simply that in acrylic.  The paint is movable and vibrant, especially if you add some oil.  It is also difficult to work with in some sense, but I quickly adapted to that.

Below is my first attempt to work in oil.  The scene is from Golden Gate in the Eastern Freestate.  I used Winsor and Newton Winton oil paint and worked on canvas sheet.  The result was really satisfying for a first attempt.

A study in Ice

Our family just love Iceland.  It is a place of unspoiled beauty with scenes that leaves you breathless.  Anneli, my eldest daughter, and myself decided to take on one of the scenes from Iceland and complete a joint painting.  The result was quite satisfying and is presented below.

Clouds 2

This is a follow-up post on my study in clouds.  I really like this outcome.  I considered this painting and the previous one as my best to date (at around August 2015) and consequently had them framed.  The outcome was remarkable.  I still get a deep sense of satisfaction looking at these paintings.

Clouds

I have an obsession with clouds.  Living in South Africa kind of forces you to take note of the beautiful sunrises, sunsets and thunderstorm clouds if you live in the interior of the country.  During my last holiday in De Rust in the Klein (Little) Karoo I spend a lot of time working on clouds.  The following post and the one to follow is the result of my study in clouds.   I am really satisfied with the result.

The work was completed in Winsor and Newton Galleria acrylic on canvas sheet.  I only used titanium white, ultramarine and burnt sienna.