MATERIALS
• 16 x 20 inch prepared canvas board.
• Reeves, Atelier and Rowney acrylic paints: Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Orange, Gold Oxide, Red Oxide, Paynes Grey, Violet, Turquoise, White, Cobalt Blue, Cerulean Blue, Ultramarine Blue.
• Brushes: Hogs hair in various sizes and a large bristle brush for the washes; also one small sable for detail.
• Micador Satin Sealer.
I enjoy the arid interior of Australia, which I have visited,so selecting my subject was easy … as the Kimberley and Pilbara are very special to me because of the richness of the colours.
This painting is of part of the Old Anthill Road at Nullagini in Western Australia and it is called ‘Castle Hill’.
STEP ONE
For the base coat, I used an application of washes in complementary colours which would show through to the finished work; then I applied the shadowed areas in Violet.
STEP TWO
The sky became a combination of all the blues and Turquoise, blended together with white using a large brush before adding base colours of Gold Oxide to large rocks and scattered conglomerates.
STEP THREE
Next came an application of gold, lemons and yellows using different sized brushes and free brush strokes for the Spinifex; then redefining of the shadows in mauve and blue.
STEP FOUR
Adding reds, oranges and gold helped to define the larger rocks; and hues of mauve, blues and grey were applied for the scree. Then I defined the foreground rocks and stones.
STEP FIVE
Last of all, I added the highlights to the rocks, stones and Spinifex (using undiluted pigment); and then added splashes of muted colour to the shadowed areas to enliven the work. The final step was a spattering of Paynes Grey in the stony areas.
When the work was fully dried, I applied a coat of Micador Satin Sealer.
MASTER HINTS AND TIPS
• I do not draw my subject first. I just reserve areas with splashes of colour.
• Most of my mixing is done directly onto the canvas.
• Being acrylic, the paint dries rapidly … but because of the lavish application my work can take up to 12 hours to dry.
