The Grass Is Always Greener

I spend a few hours this morning working some more on The Old Stone House. For starters I spent time working on the hills and local buildings to the left along the hill side. I toned down the buildings to blend them into the background, leaving only ghost images to indicate they are out there. I will continue to work on these as I see the need to soften them more.


I painted in the rectangular field that sits horizontally to the rear and left of the house. Then I painted in the low shrubs that bordered the field just to the rear of the road. As promised I filled in the road with hard-packed dirt to depict the "country" road as it might have looked a few hundred years ago.

I toned down the front lawn of the house and added a few details in the rough area beyond the lawn to the right.

I began adding grass in the foreground by adding layers of darker colors. I used Indian red, raw umber and a mixture of sap green and yellow ochre. I used some olive green to define a grassy border along the country road.

You are probably wondering what the "leopard-like" anomaly is supposed to be in the right lower corner of the painting. Actually, that object has been there since I first laid in the foreground. It is a clump of yellow flowered weeds. Now however I've added a little texture in anticipation of further developing the weeds later. It will take shape as I work that area later.

The painting is not too wet just damp in some areas. At this point I will take a break for a few days to allow the entire painting to "cure" a little in front of the studio windows. I may need a few extra days because as of today, heavy rains have started. Remnants of hurricane Ida will be with us for a while. I don't expect much sunshine while she passes through.

L8ter,

Wetbrusher