back to blogOver the last 3 years I have been painting a series called God's Own. They were very much inspired by the beautiful Yorkshire landscape with rolling green hills and dark brooding skies. Most of them were painted with oil on canvas and the largest being 1m x 1m.
For the last two years I have very much been obsessing with oil and cold wax and experimenting with creating more abstract landscapes. This has meant that my more realistic landscape work has been put on the back burner for a while and not surprisingly I was getting quite a few requests last year for some more God's own work.
So I decided to see what a God's Own image would look like using cold wax and on a large scale so out came the massive roll of Arches paper.
I love my roll of Arches paper but it is a bit tricksy trying to get it flat!
Initial mark making using R&F pigment sticks
Applying base colours on a sheet of Arches this size can take some doing as it is such an absorbent material. Lots of paint was used.
Original marks from R&F pigment sticks can be seen through the translucent layers. At this point I also used R&F pigment sticks to make marks on top of the layers to mark out the composition.
Starting to add blocks of colour. For a painting this size I find the brayers much easier to use than a squeegee. They do a great job at blending.
More paint being added but you can still see the beautiful orange and reds underneath.
Starting to scratch in the stone walls and defining where the farmhouse will be. This is very similar to what I have done with oil on canvas where I will scratch back to the base layer. With oil and cold wax this is much more effective and the lines more defined.
Close up of those lines.
And this is the final piece with farmhouse and now some trees. The farm house was very much needed to give the painting a focal point to draw the viewer in. The challenge then was what to call it... so I called upon Nick to find a line from one of his poems.
Nicely framed up at the Art& exhibition.
And this is how it looks on my kitchen wall which is where it will stay for a little while whilst I enjoy it!
All in all I think the oil and cold wax has worked pretty well with this latest God's Own painting which is named “The slim medal of a sun struggles through loose wrapped air.” It is 137 x 64 cm is double mounted and framed in a dark grey soft wood frame. Because of the size of this work shipping is limited to UK only.
