IMPRESSIONIST LANDSCAPE

ELIZABETH BALDIN paints an IMPRESSIONIST LANDSCAPE

Elizabeth used to work in book design but now mostly paints -  particularly in an impressionistic style. She works in most media but not usually pastel.

For a base she uses canvas board, her brushes are usually flats and on this occasion she was using  Golden acrylics. As acrylics darken when dry Elizabeth usually puts the final highlights in using oils. Mixing is done on a baking parchment based stay-wet palette.

Her paintings are usually based on her photographs and she first does a black and white sketch before working out her colour scheme. It is the sketch that is referred to during the painting. The "Rule of Thirds" is a useful guide in establishing the composition.

The painting was started by putting in the darkest dark using Payne's Grey. The sky was then blocked in using a dabbing technique with a flat brush. Impressionist style paintings have no areas of flat colour - instead colour is made up of a mixture of colours eg. grass can be different tones of different greens plus bits of complimentary colours. In this case the sky is made up of one main colour - Cobalt Blue - to which white is added to give different tonal values and  a black which, with the white, gives grey. A mauve is the third colour and this, with blue and white, produces a light mauve.

The background colour was therefore the blue mix and clouds the mauve mix with their base of grey. Light blue was placed just above the horizon. The whole area was then blended slightly. This technique was used throughout the painting.

Distant hills were painted in a grey-green using a smaller brush to get smaller strokes.

Shadows are rendered in purple and green - usually a blue or yellow green.

For this painting the mid-ground and path is rendered in tones of yellow with red and blue flowers in the foreground.

The final stages involve checking that the tones are correct throughout the painting and that the technique is uniform. Then the final highlights are added.

 

Elizabeth is a very talented painter and excellent teacher and gave us an unforgettable evening. Below is the beautiful final painting.