Impressionic waterfall

I recently revisit the artwork of Tibor Nagy on Pinterest. He has a very interesting impressionistic style where the whole painting is out of focus, with the key focal point being given a certain amount of focus. I like it. The style speaks to me. I therefore tried to copy his style by copying one of his paintings. The result is presented below. I did not achieve his level of impressionism, but I did go more loose than my usual painting style. Overall the result is satisfactory… I can hear the water roar!

Tibor Nagy’s waterfall

Waterfall

My large screen iPad Pro with Apple Pencil is a real blessing! I use ProCreate to digitally paint on the almost almost canvas size display. I paint from reference images and usually start off using a split screen before I would go over to casting the image onto the TV or computer screens.

I am not 100% satisfied with this attempt, but decided to still post it. It is as if it appears “chalky” rather than “oily”. I aim to make all my digital paintings appear like oil paintings. I do not follow a special digital technique on ProCreate, but try to paint in the exact same style as I would using oil. For example, I do not use layers. There is off course some differences, but I try to stay as close as possible to my oil technique to avoid “brush confusion” when I switch over to oil.

Back to the painting: I found the image on Pinterest. I am reasonably satisfied with it as I can hear the waterfall roar!

Rapids and rocks

Since I grew up in the mountains in the Western Cape of South Africa (not too far from Cape Town), I have an obsession with mountains, rapids, rocks and rockpools. The last while I have spent more and more time painting these topics. Here is one I did today using a photo I found on Pinterest as reference on my iPad Pro and ProCreate. I am quite satisfied with the result.

… and some more clouds…

Some more clouds painted on my iPad Pro using ProCreate. The timelapse video is posted here.

Snowy mountain value study

Her is a recent study I performed on my iPad Pro using ProCreate. The aim was to capture the contrast of the rocks and snow in this value study. The timelapse video is posted here.

Another value study

I have not painted in oil for a long time. I therefore decided to first do a value study (a greyscale painting) before I jumped into full colours again. This painting is the result and I am quite satisfied. I decided to tone my canvas in a warm grey and the result was this rather warm painting of a cold theme.

I was amazed how easy it was to do this painting taken that I have not painted for months. I can only assume that the time I have spent painting on the iPad has kept my skills and technique in tune.

The painting was once again based on a painting of Mark Boedges. I am trying to copy his style and I am constantly motivated by his paintings.

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.