Adrianna L. 24"x18" Oil on canvas “The Old Mill House and Stream”

When deciding on my final project for painting one I realized I had not learned landscape painting yet. I am lucky enough to live in a very rural area with beautiful landscapes constantly surrounding me, and I thought how nice it would be if I could paint these scenes. I had taken a basic photography class last year and one of my photos seems to resonate with most people who saw it. This photo was of an old barn near a stream. The image was captured vertically allowing the stream to pull the viewer through the image. There is a certain peace people feel when viewing such a simple country scene. I believe this is why Hudson River school paintings are so beloved. I would love to master this type of skill and I needed to start somewhere, hence my decision for a landscape as my final piece for painting I.

After the decision for my image was made I needed to decide on the placement of the image on the canvas. One of the techniques we learned was to take a square whose center was cut out, hold it up in front of our still life to decide the best angle and subject matter for our piece. I used this idea to help me with the placement of my landscape. We sketched a few thumbnails, and I also used the rule of two thirds. After working with these different design layouts I decided the strength of the image was the stream pulling you through the picture. I made it the

largest area of the canvas. I chose to make the old barn building smaller to create a sense of depth. Next we sketched our piece on the canvas and painted an undertone base with burnt umber. I found this exceptionally helpful when deciding on shadowing or values for my painting.

Next was taking what we learned from a color theory sessions and putting it to work. One of the most interested things I learned was how the combination of blue and brown make a dark black like color. I have used this color a lot in my painting, mixing white and blue to change it to match the barn boards, trees, water and rocks in my painting. When we had to do the color chart for our paintings I had no idea how use full this would be. As we mixed the colors we wrote down the mixing portions for each color we created. When I used up all of a color that I had created the chat gave me the information I need to recreate it. If I was making a new color the chart helped me figure out what I would need for it. This saved me a lot of time but also it kept me from wasting too much paint. The color wheel has become my greatest painting tool.

My painting has some aspect I am very happy with but I am full aware I still have a lot to learn. I feel the barn is a fairly good rendering and I am very happy with how I made the water look like it is really moving. Studying clouds was fun but I don’t think the people who were behind me on my way to school, where very please each time I stopped to take a picture of different clouds. I also notice the sky was different in chrome as it lowered to meet the ground. It was a much lighter color by the ground. I have decided I still much to learn and that practicing at home

maybe the best way for me to develop more a as a painter. The colors in my painting are very bright and I’m not sure I like this. It reminds me more of fall then the dull dark colors of pre-snow winter, which is the time of year I wanted to capture. This reminds me of another thing I must learn, that landscapes are freer flowing than controlled and this is something I have difficulty giving into. In the end I have found this to be very pleasant experience and my knowledge of painting techniques and color has increased ten fold.