This week my plein air endeavors took me to a bit of an unusual place: a local cemetery. The location boasted some great examples of atmospheric color shifts, with rolling blue hills visible in the background, as well as an opportunity to practice some one-point perspective, where the paths and headstones disappeared into the distance. The weather was beautiful, and there was just the right amount of shade. However, the most unexpected benefit of painting in a cemetery is that none of its inhabitants will interrupt you during the process. A morbid thought? Perhaps. But it was quite peaceful, and I suspect that artistic contemplation is an excellent way to honor those who have passed on.
To begin with, I laid down a basic wash of burnt sienna to create an overall warm tone, and I very much enjoy this step, as it takes away the intimidation of a plain white canvas and allows for any thin areas in your final painting to look intentional. I still don’t quite understand how this works, but I am curious to try out other warm tones as well in the future, such as red or yellow. I began painting from back to front, beginning with the color of the sky. At this point in the day, it was a little hazy, and that haziness helped capture the distance of the scene properly, so I kept it in even after it evaporated. The mountains were a nice bluish green, so I used the sky color to turn into a darker shade with more ultramarine and cadmium yellow. With a second glance, they should probably have been a bit lighter, but overall I think the desired effect was achieved.
Next, I began painting the grass. As you can see in the photos above, the light changed dramatically from the wash phase to the current phase. I now had to worry about shadows on the grass, even though it was overcast before. However, first I focused on capturing the shift in hue on the ground. Even though I was positioned in the shade, I decided to still keep the front of the grass quite warm to emphasize the closeness. I then added blue tones from my sky paint in the back to make the sense of depth more believable. The headstones I wanted to worry about last, since they would go on top of everything else. The burnt sienna came in handy here, as the foreground grass appeared quite warm without any additional paint.
My next challenge was painting the trees, which was still the trickiest part. The path I painted first, since it would just receive the same treatment as the grass in terms of cooling down as it receded. The trees were in the midground (mostly) and finding a good balance between warm light and cooler shadows felt nearly impossible and took an incredibly long time. However, I am finding it easier to describe the forms of trees in a way that doesn’t look (at least entirely) like finger painting.
Finally, I added the headstones, as well as the shadows across the ground. I am not entirely happy with how the headstones turned out, the edges aren’t very crisp and I would prefer more variety in shape as well. However, I am still generally happy with this piece and really like the textures I got to create. Slowly but surely, plein air painting is becoming less frustrating, even though I still have a long ways to go.
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