Gallery Show Tonight, plus Some In-Process Photos of a Painting

9" x 12" Oil on Panel

Tonight the Terra Nova Gallery is opening their 10th anniversary exhibit. The show features several of the gallery's "inaugural" artists who have been with the gallery since it started, and I'm one of them! Two of my recent plein air paintings are in the show, one of which is shown above. I've gotten a sneak peek of the exhibit, and it promises to be a very good show! The show opens tonight for "First Friday Gallery Stroll" and runs through this month (September 2013). The Terra Nova Gallery is located at 41 West and 300 North in Provo, Utah.  For gallery hours and more information visit Terra Nova's website.

It's been a long time since I've shown any step-by-step demonstrations of my plein air painting technique, so I thought I'd show how the painting pictured above was done. It was painted a few weeks ago in west Springville, not far from the lake. My apologies for the quality of some of the in-process photos, which are kind of blurry, but I hope they get the ideas across.

First the painting panel is toned with a mix of ultramarine blue and permanent alizarin crimson, plus a touch of cadmium yellow. Then the image is sketched in with the same color:

The colors that are then blocked in are a starting point, establishing value and color relationships. At this point I usually work from foreground to background, or dark to light:

The painting is then developed from the background to the foreground. Here the clouds and mountains are beginning to be worked up:

The mountains and middle ground are worked some more, and foliage is added to the trees:

The foreground is next, but I'm continually adjusting all parts of the painting as needed:

Final adjustments are made, and the painting is finished:

This was my set up for that day:

Hope you found this useful! As always, the painting looks better in real life so if you can go to the Terra Nova Gallery for the opening tonight - or anytime throughout the month (contact Terra Nova for gallery hours) - you can see it and all of the other wonderful artworks by some of the best painters and sculptors in the state (and maybe some from out of state, too)!