I like to paint pictures using a lot of color and light. This painting "Evening take off" is an example of that process. I live on a lake so when I take a walk in the evening I have the opportunity to take plenty of photos of the interaction of sun light and water. I really like it when clouds are in the sky and the sun is piercing through the clouds and peaking over the horizon line.
When painting reflections you have to keep a lot of things in mind. For one thing I notice a lot of amateur artists will use pure white when making splashes in water. Water simply reflects what surrounds it at the surface. I always save my pure white highlights for the end. If the whole splash is pure white, there is no depth or shadow to the splashing effect. When painting waves or ripples I usually put the reflections in the painting first using a back and forth stroke just to imply the object being reflected. Some artists try to paint a perfect mirror image of what is being reflected and it doesn't look natural. Water on a large scale like a lake is rarely ever perfectly still because you have wind sweeping across it, boats and water sports, or wildlife such as these ducks splashing and disturbing the surface. After I put the reflections in, I add wave strokes, usually using several different colors, working dark colors on the edges and the brighter colors toward the middle.
Though a lot of my paintings look fairly detailed, I will never use 20 brush strokes to paint something that I can do in one stroke and get my point across. Look at the reflection of the tallest tree in the painting. I did nothing more than a back and forth stroke going down with a dark color to get the point across that the water is being disturbed and there is still a reflective quality to it.
If any of you are artists having questions or a person just interested in my process feel free to send me an email. I'm happy to help. If you are interested in purchasing this original painting here is the link https://www.painestudios.com/wildlife?lightbox=dataItem-kcy35jfk
Prints are also available for this piece at this link. https://www.etsy.com/listing/857000923/evening-take-off?ref=shop_home_active_24
Thank you!
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