Stage 4

I’ve laid in a mottled background for the lower portion and the trees/mountains.   I worked primarily with dark sienna and viridian, mixing in a little of the blues I used in the sky to tone the brown down. The lower background is very dark, but it is only background so I’m not worried.   I’ve decided I love the sky and I think the Aurora will be enough there.  I’m going to bring the Celtic patterns into the landscape, but I’m going to try and keep them fairly dark so that they don’t detract from the sky. I want them to be subtle.  I’m moving more to an idea of the division between man/of the earth and the gods/of the sky.  I think background of the Aurora came out quite lovely.  There are a few details I’m not happy with, for example the inner curve of the curl, but I can work on them later.   I can’t wait to see what happens when I start adding the highlights.

One of the best things about working in oils is that you can fix anything, or if you really hate something, you scrape the whole canvas and start over.  It’s a very freeing feeling.

I looked at the canvas again and as the paint is drying, the lower portion is really looking dark.  I may need to go in with some slightly lighter greens and browns today and add more to the mottling. Although the colors may pull up more in contrast to the patterns I’m going to add.  Decisions, decisions...

My husband brought my light box that he made me to our new house and I’m going to have to start working on my hand cutwork for the patterns I want to add into the landscape.