While Storm Ciara raged outside, I had a productive Sunday in the studio starting not one, but two new paintings.
After finishing the blocking-in stage of the first scene inspired by winter sunlight on Pendine Sands, I moved onto another painting which is the first time revisiting my cloudscapes with silhouettes style in over a year.
Both paintings show evidence of where I’ve wanted to continue adding elements but have retreated due to the fact the paint was too wet to continue.
When painting with acrylics this wasn’t a problem. A few minutes and the paint was dry enough to paint over. But the trouble with acrylics was that drying time could be too fast and it would force me to do a lot in one sitting to get the effects I wanted.
I love the extended drying time of oil paint and wouldn’t trade it in. It just means that I’m growing a small collection of unfinished paintings. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it does mean I’ve always got something to work on without thinking too much about it. I can do a short stint of painting some clouds or some foliage detail in the small windows of time I have available.
I am aware though that with four unfinished paintings in the studio, I need to concentrate on finishing pieces before the backlog becomes too large!
