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Monday 4 August 2014

Black Mill, Beverley on an August evening

Plein air oil on board 12x10"
Another lovely summer day. Decided to do another picture of Black Mill, on the Westwood, Beverley. This time on a prepared board. I find working on a board as opposed to a canvas can be tricky. The lack of "give" from a board requires a different technique. Stiff bristle work can actually scratch paint off the surface. Th less absorbent surface can also affect the drying time. I thought I would make this a loose multi-layed application of thin paints. The old trick of half closing one's eyes to see the basic values helps a lot when trying to capture the varied grass colours. The sky was  pale blue and the setting sun highlighted the freshly painted Black Mill. Strangely, no signs of any of the hundreds of cows until we were packing up, when some could be seen congregating near the water trough at the back of the Mill. Occasionally a car would appear and a dog owner take his companion for a walk as the evening cooled down. Earlier, while walking George, we had seen two ex colleagues playing golf, LJ and BC. We witnessed some brilliant swings, and only lost two balls.....over two holes!
H A P P Y  P A I N T I N G

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello, John. I've just gone back in time and looked at all your Black Mill paintings, which I think are absolutely wonderful, but I do believe this is (so far) my favorite; I just love the way you've depicted the foreground grasses here. Lovely piece of work.

John Geekie said...

Yes Susan, it is fresh and loose in style. I also like it a lot.