I’ve added three crows flying in toward the traveler beside the tree, adding a nice little detail to that area of the painting. I think they’re soft enough to avoid attracting attention away from the most important features of the piece – the sky and the traveler.
I’ve been enjoying working the wild roses up, using a light grey and a dense Ceramic white, with touches of Naples Yellow and a little Cadmium Red in the centers of the flower heads. I’d like to get serious about the leaves next, because although I’m happy with what I’ve done so far as a background, the rose leaves need to be equally carefully rendered as the acacia leaves in the upper right, or the depth will feel wrong. I expect to drop the bright whiteness of the petals back a little with a glaze of Iron Oxide. At first glance there doesn’t appear to be much difference to the work I completed Sunday, but there’s a lot more detail in the flowers now and I’ve added many more small and indistinct white roses in the background, putting the tree into a better relationship with the foreground.
I must confess to a deep seated temptation to paint a California Landcape purple into the mountains!
In this fantastic world airplane vapour trails never cross the sky.
