Sunbeams

Preliminary Painting

Sunbeams was inspired by a photo I took one morning in September while we were camping at Sauble Falls in the Bruce Peninsula. The mornings were quite cold so people down the road from us had a very smoky fire going which really accentuated the early morning sun coming through the trees. I love being able to see sunbeams.

Finished Painting

I wasn't sure if I would post this painting quite yet since it is in the spirit of what I learned at a workshop back in November given by Charlie Spratt about being loose in Acrylic painting. Really, I should have first posted the paintings done during that workshop but both of those still need a bit of work before posting and who knows when I will do the required work. I describe the techniques used to paint Sunbeams as being a painting 'a la Charlie Spratt'. I did the preliminary monochromatic painting on the canvas without a prior pencil sketch. When this was dry I painted the colours over top. in one sense I found this difficult since I really liked my preliminary painting and was afraid of ruining the effects that I had captured. On the other hand it is a really good way of laying in a painting without worrying about getting it exactly right - that is really freeing!

This past winter I bought a book featuring the paintings of The Group of Seven and Tom Thomson and also a book featuring a painter named Bruno Cote who paints with a similar style. My purpose for buying these books was to be inspired by the style since I would like to be able to paint using a similar style. I feel that I may have approached a Group of Sevenish style in my foreground trees in Sunbeams.