The Making of a Painting – ‘Dusky Moor’

Mixed Media on Panel

Painting Stages:-

Setting the pace with big, expressive marks from the outset of a painting is an important part
of my practice in order to allow the energy to flow and get the painting ‘moving’.

My style is loose, energetic and spontaneous. With large palette knives and brushes, I usually
like to ‘dive in’ to a painting with fast-moving applications of wet-in-wet paint, sometimes
using a retarding medium to slow down the drying time of the acrylic paint thus allowing for
more paint malleability. Once this is dry, I move towards more considered blocks of colour,
adjusting how the colours sit together and I look for pattern and design in the paint marks
which I then ‘tie together’.

The paintings are built up in a series of layers, some in thicker, impasto paint and some more
fluid. Often paint is covered over or ‘knocked back’ to reveal hints of hidden layers beneath.
I enjoy this continuous process of revealing, hiding and accentuating and am constantly open
to changing parts of a painting so that work remains alive and open to possibility. As I have
naturally evolved towards abstraction, my work has become increasingly experimental and I
enjoy pushing boundaries, taking risks (not being too precious about making mistakes!) and
not getting too tied up with technique.

Glazing is an important part of my process and it is always a joy when transparent glazes
appear to make the paint beneath glow. Sometimes I use an acrylic glazing medium (as in the
sky area of this demo) and sometimes I just add a little water.

More often than not I work from imagination but if I do use one of my reference photographs,
I only take certain elements from it such as basic compositional structure or part of a cloud
formation. I tend to use black and white reference photographs which aren’t tied in to any
colour structure.

Generally, I use one or two small painting studies as inspiration for a larger piece of work,
although I avoid creating a ‘scaled up’ version of a small study as I believe each piece of work
should be allowed to develop on its own and be considered an individual work in its own right.

Small painting studies and sketchbooks are a big part of my painting process. I love to make
my own concertina sketchbooks which I particularly enjoy as I like the way they flow as an
extended piece.
Inside my sketchbooks I often keep colour notes and little colour swatches to remind me of
colour mixes I have used. I love experimenting with colour mixes, trying out subtle mixes of
olive greys and tints, muted lilacs and desaturated reds for example. Where I have a large
area of muted colour I will often break that up by scoring through it with a primary or vibrant
colour (sometimes using a thick oil pastel).

I use a variety of different brands of acrylic paint, Winsor and Newton, Liquitex and Golden
being three of my favourites. I enjoy working with a limited palette (sometimes just the three
primary colours and a black and white paint) - I find it fascinating how many subtle colour
variations can be mixed from so few colours. I also like to introduce my favourite pre-bought
mixes such as Winsor and Newton’s Artists’ Light Red (used in this demo) which produces so
many gorgeous muted pink tints.

For larger paintings, I usually work on panel or canvas. In this demonstration, I have worked
on wooden panel. Sometimes I like to sand back paint which can reveal some interesting
textures and colours underneath which can then be worked over. I also enjoy the smoothness
of panel and I love the way the paint seems to glide over the surface.

This painting demonstration is fundamentally about energy and atmosphere. I wanted to

relate a feeling of looking up into a big, open, infinite sky and draw attention to how the
softness of the clouds contrast with the raw, organic structure of the moorland and rocky
areas. I always aim to create abstraction without losing atmosphere.

1) “Reference studies and photograph with colour swatches”.

Inspired by the North Yorkshire Moors, I rough

out some ideas for the colours scheme and the
basic composition – a big, atmospheric sky over
a sloping moorland beneath, painted in muted,
dusky tones. The colour swatches help me
decide on colours I want to introduce.
2) “First Layer”

Working on a wooden panel (which has

been pre-sealed with GAC 100 and
gessoed), I quickly apply heavy body acrylic
in a warm terracotta using a 2” flat acrylic
brush and large palette knife.

3) “Raw Umber and Scratching Through Wet Paint”

Once this layer has dried, I work over the

terracotta with Raw Umber acrylic,
scratching through the wet paint to reveal
the terracotta beneath. I also introduce
some Paynes Grey and Indiantherene Blue.

4) “Blocking In”

I start to block in larger areas of colour with

a 2” and 3” flat acrylic brush and large
palette knife. I have introduced a green
grey mix for the sky.
5) “Stay Wet Palette”

My ‘Stay Wet’ Palette stops my acrylics

from drying up. I usually have 2 or 3 of
them on the go during a painting session! I
sometimes make my own using a masonite
tray or flat plastic container, absorbent
materials such as sponge cloth/felt/kitchen
roll and parchment paper on the top.

6) “Dry Brush Dragging”

I love to vary my brushmarks to keep the

work feeling fresh and alive. Here I am
dragging the blue grey painting downward
over the orange sky using a dry brush
method.

7) “Applying Dry Media”

Introducing linear marks to break up areas.

Here I have used Inktense pencils and an
orange oil pastel.
8) “Muted Pinks”

Creating some muted pink tones using mixes

of Pale Umber, Raw Umber and Ultramarine
Violet.

9) “Textures”

Loving the interesting textures and

interplay of thick and thin paint.

10) “Close Up”

I’m always on the lookout for interesting

print and collage materials I can introduce
into my paintings. The chequered area has
been printed on with a piece of anti-slip
fabric roll.
 11) “Finished Piece”

I fix all dry media using a pastel

fixative. Once dry, I apply a coat
of gloss gel medium. This brings
out the lustre of the colours,
helps to seal the oil pastel, and
other media (I never apply
heavy layers of oil pastel and
find the gel medium deals with
any potential tackiness and
scratching) and acts as an
isolation coat prior to applying
an acrylic satin varnish.

What I Used
Smooth, prepared wooden panel Heavy body acrylic paint
Acrylic matt medium Acrylic gloss gel medium
Acrylic glazing medium Slow-Dry retardant medium
Charcoal Oil pastels
Inktense pencils Acrylic satin varnish
Pastel Fixative Anti-slip fabric roll
Stay-Wet palette Large palette knives (10 & 12cm)

1”, 1.5”, 2” & 3” flat acrylic synthetic brushes, flat silicone colour shapers and hardware store
brushes
Colours:-
Black, White and Three Primaries:
Titanium White Mars Black Indanthrene Blue
Yellow Ochre Alizarin Crimson

Extra Colours:

Cadmium Orange Payne’s Grey Raw Umber

Light Red Green Grey Blue Grey
Ultramarine Violet Phthalo Turquoise Terracotta