Showing posts with label portraiture pastels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label portraiture pastels. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Winter observations

"Abandoned suitcase in the reeds" by Hilary J. England
oil on canvas, 7" x 14, 2016

Here is a plein air painting I did the day before yesterday.  It was so blistering cold, my fingers kept getting numb, and my Liquin got all goopy, and my canvas blew into the dirt a few times too.  This weather sometimes makes me very depressed, so I try to work through it.  I don't know if it's the weather as much as it is the time of year...after the holidays, and everyone seems to be dropping dead.  It gets dark by mid-afternoon, and my eyeballs dry out at night from the heat being on. Enough to make you want to hibernate until Spring.

This painting reflects the forlorn mood I was in.  A sad, broken suitcase, just mouldering on the edge of the frigid river, nestled sadly amongst the dead reeds and cold rocks.  I thought of the trips it made or didn't make, and now, it's final resting place.  Winter sometimes does that to me -- makes me too introspective.

Anyway, I thought it was an interesting composition, and I have decided on my walks in the very mean weather of January and February to record the feelings and sights of winter.  So here is the first.

~Enjoy.

Crow in the Mist New oil painting

“Crow in the mist” by Hilary J. England, 12” x 16” oil on canvas  I was out walking along in the cold damp fog the day before the big snow, ...