Daily Painting – Red Sky, Red Day
Well folks… it’s Monday morning here.
I’ve woken to dreadful news out of Sydney, with several people (15) shot dead on the beach at Bondi — our most iconic beach. Processing news like this is hard, especially given the nationalities and religious killing undertones. I simply don’t understand.
I’m not declaring sides here — just saying this is not ok. I don’t really have the words beyond shock and pain at the idea that someone feels it’s acceptable to take a life. Especially a life that is simply existing, not a life that has physically harmed you.
Anyway… moving along — though it feels crass to say that after writing the above. Perhaps it’s ironic that I’ve spent the morning painting, and that this painting is a beach scene bathed almost entirely in red light.
The Painting
This daily painting took a little longer than usual. It’s about 10am as I write this and I started when I got up. It can’t have been more than two hours, so I’ll call it around 1.5 hours — longer than my usual one-hour target, but I liked where it was going.
It might be a little fussy for such a small canvas, and I probably could have gotten away with less, but I’m leaving it here.
The Concept
The aim was to create a painting that glowed from underneath.
To do that, I built the entire piece over warm orange-based layers — light and dark — so that the orange peeks through the thinner acrylic layers and subtly tints everything above it.
Colours Used
- Cadmium Orange
- Cadmium Yellow Medium
- Matisse Red (new — still undecided on this one)
- White
- Dioxazine Purple
- Burnt Sienna
- The tiniest touch of blue and black — right at the very end only
Method
- First wash: cad orange with a touch of white, fairly thin, fully dried
- Drew in the guide lines
- Blocked in main shapes and darks
- Foreground rocky sands: a blend of purple and red
- Water: slightly more yellow and red
- Sky clouds: deep purple-red tones
There is no blue under the sky — deliberately. I didn’t want to risk killing the yellows by turning them green. Purple is the only “blue-ish” colour in the sky.
Most of the stones in the foreground are just cad red mixed with purple. I did add a touch of light blue-grey right at the end for a few extra stones, but very sparingly.
Anyway — I now need to get on with the day. Writing these posts and doing the video will probably take a wee while.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the painting, despite the bloody red day it is here in lovely Australia.