"Vintage"

This is my latest painting. It is a landscape depicting a vineyard. It is in oil, on a 24 x 18 inch canvas.

Here are the notes I've taken while painting it:

For session one, I laid in the actual vines of the vineyard. I tried to indicate rows, and showed the perspective as they went into the distance up the hill. I used sap green, naples yellow, transparent oxide brown, permanent green medium, titanium white, and a touch of cadmium yellow light. Oh, I also used van dyke brown for the dark areas.

For session two, I added some darks: the trees in the distance, and plants in the foreground. In both cases, I used a mix of van dyke brown and terra verte. I'm hoping that when I add the yellows for the sky that the highlights on the distant trees do not look out of place.

Session three, I did two things: the sky and some of the foreground. For the sky, I wanted a warm yellow gradient from top to bottom. There, I used titanium white mostly mixed with slight traces of Naples yellow, cadmium yellow light, cadmium red medium, and ultramarine blue. I added patches of each one, and then blended with a dry brush.

For the foreground -- the red flowers -- I used a combination of van dyke brown and cadmium red medium. There I used both a brush and a palette knife to add thick chunky paint.

During Session 4, I really struggled with bush in the foreground. I added paint, scraped it off, added paint, scraped it off, and so on. I finally got it to a point that I'm resigned to. One thing that did go well, however, is closing up some of the big gaps on the trees in the background.

Below are the photos I've taken showing progress over time:

Session 1
Session 2
Session 3
Session 4
Final