Lindy Whitton Studio

I’ve been tutoring a 4 week Exploring Acrylics class and doing lots of little, scrappy, demo pieces using all sorts of different mediums and techniques which has left me with a few patchy canvases .

This one was a demo of the different ways to add texture through modelling pastes and thick gels.

It sat on my easel looking sadly at me for a few days till I decided I had better put it out of it’s misery.

I had a palette with some colours on it already so I jumped right in and scrubbed in an overcast sky with a mix of neutrals. I liked the way the warm peachy colour of the toned canvas showed through so stopped before I ruined it.

Even though the sky was overcast I decided to go with a brighter sea. I was working off a memory of some visits to Point Lobos State Reserve onthe Californian Coast. An absolutely beautiful place full of rocky shore, wheeling seabirds, a profusion of wildflowers and a swirling sea.

I decided I better fish out a photo at some point to refresh my memory.

I was having too much fun to get that photo out yet! I built up some blocky areas of paint for the rocky outcrops and started scrubbing in patches of vegetation and the odd tree.

I could really feel myself back there and wanted to stay with my memories instead of going for an exact rendition from a photo so just kept adding paint using a palette knife and a large flat, trusting my memory to guide me.

I knew I was going to add in some a big patch of yellow flowers in the foreground and some lighter greens so I massed in some dark purples, greens and browns as the shadowy underpinnings for the light that was to come.

You can see how dark my palette looks now!

I go find that photo and yes! it’s very much like my memory, so I use it now to get a handle on the sorts of flowers and plants in the foreground.

I don’t try and paint it exactly as the photo is but use it as a prompt for textures and masses.

I’m adding in a little lighter version of the water into the right hand side foliage to make a connection with the sea. It isn’t really that colour but I like it so it stays that way.

Some of the light greens go in as well as the grey branches.

I’m starting on the yellows now and get out the palette knife and some thick gell to add some extra texture. I like the way that yellow is picking up and echoing the yellow on the first headland. It helps pull the eye through the picture.

I go wild with the yellow flowers in the foreground, muting them a little as they come right foreward and adding in some off white flowers as a counter point.

I darken up the bottoms of the cliffs and add a little reflected colour into the water.

After checking it all over I decide it needs a few swooping seabirds so I flick three in over the far headland.

I know the sky doesn’t really match the mood of the sea but it perfectly matches my memories so I don’t change a thing!