Finished! Does Anyone Else Love Tree Tunnels?

Hello there!

Hope this finds you well and happy on a wet and gloomy Brisneyland day.  Honestly, whatever happened to Spring?

Anyway, after a couple of weeks waiting for the oil paint to dry, I'm (sort of) happy to present my completed tree tunnel painting:

To be honest, my feeling is the painting isn't quite as successful as I would have hoped, but I figure ultimately that it will do.  I am however, quite pleased that this experience was great practice working on the notion of perspective and exploring the blending capacity of the oil paint.  It really is quite different to working with acrylic, that's for sure!

In case you are wondering, my incredibly scientific conclusions regarding the blendability of oil paint is that it blends - it blends- it blends but then suddenly it turns to something that looks suspiciously like the contents of a newborn's nappy.    Truly.  All that's missing is the smell.  So, if you want to use oil paint, please learn from my baby doo-doo experience and don't repeat my mistakes! ;-)

On that smelly note, I think I'll wrap up this post.

I hope you kind of like it and you have a wonderfully relaxing weekend full of sunshine and laughter.

I'll see you next week,

Kate
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Does Anyone Else Love Tree Tunnels? (Part 2)

Hiya!

Following on from last week's post about my love for tree tunnels, I continued work on my own tree tunnel painting in Ms Kathy's art class last night.  Here you go, have a look at my progress:

I can tell you that working in oil paints has so far been an interesting combination of  "pleasure and pain" (thank you Divinyls) - I adored the fact I could blend and bend and work the paint, but found it painful that I'd notice a mistake and go back to fix it, only to find I need to wait for the paint to dry and go back next week to repaint it and fix it up.

I think I must have sounded kind of like this to my class-mates, "aahhhhhhh--- ARRRRRRGGGGGGH------aaaaaahhhhh---ARRRRRRGGGGGGH!!!!!"  (And it wasn't even talk like a pirate day.  There were a few moments I thought I might have to walk the plank over the course of the evening.)

Anyway, I can see that the painting is coming along and am looking forward to next week when I can address those niggly areas that are really bugging me.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Kate
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Does Anyone Else Love Tree Tunnels? (Part 1)

Or is it just me?

When people think of a landscape that makes them feel happy, some people imagine the beach; others the mountains.  Me, I dream of tree tunnels.

I think it is because I have wonderful memories of walking or driving through these when I travelled with my husband and kidlets across the UK a couple of years ago.  Without fail, every time we walked or drove through one, there would be an inevitable, excited and almost involuntary  "Woooooo-hooooo, Treeeeeeee Tunnnnnneeeellllll!" shout of glee from one of the kids.   I ask you, how could you not love tree tunnels after such sweet experiences?

So, when Ms Kathy suggested that I paint something in oils in art class last night, it didn't take long for me to come up with the concept of painting my own tree tunnel so I could relive happy memories every time I looked at it.

I can tell you that whilst the concept was easy, the "minor" issue of perspective and light coming into play, most certainly wasn't!  It was actually quite frustrating in a way.  Still, after a couple of hours, I managed to complete my under-painting of my tree tunnel in Autumn:

I still have a long way to go to complete this oil painting.  Firstly, it needs to dry (around a week - oh why does it have to take so long for oil paint to dry!); I need to address a couple of slight "directional light and shade" issues; add some leaves; amend a couple of tree trunks; add a couple more tree trunks and just generally fine tune the painting.  Still, I think it is a reasonable start.

I hope that you have a wonderful weekend, full of fun and relaxation - why not try walking through a tree-tunnel?   Just make sure you shout a "Woo-hoo!" as you walk through the tunnel, in order to have a properly satisfying and fulfilling tree-tunnel experience.  You won't be disappointed.

I'll see you next week, I'm off in search of my closest park.

Kate
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