Here is a photographic history of the painting "Neenah Light Spring Morning". It captures the step by step progress that went into the painting. I don't have the specific dates that went along with this painting, but it took about 5 months to complete. I started this around December of 2010 and finished it in April of 2011. Recently, I've been working on several paintings at the same time and all of them are in different phases of completion. So the five months that went into Neenah Light Spring Morning only involve a few hours of time a few times per week. This painting was done entirely with alkyds to speed-up the drying time. Only the the ground was done with pure oil paints albeit they were mixed with Liquin and odorless mineral spirits to dilute and reduce drying time. The colored ground provides enough of the subtle color to provide the overall feel and atmosphere of being on a lakeshore in the northern US.
Here is the ground on the canvas. It's a mixture of burnt sienna and rose madder diluted with OMS and Liquin.
A basic graphite line drawing on the ground.
I often use masking tape to cover some of the key objects in the painting while I paint the skies and background. It also helps to keep horizons and shorelines even.
I completed the sky and clouds.
Added some background trees on close and distant shorelines.
Blocked-in water and waves along with grass, shadows and walk areas.
Glazed over grass and water to add some depth and brilliance while maintaining the same chroma.
Started to block in lightests areas of the lighthouse building. Shaded in tree limbs.
Filled in darker areas with grays and black.
More light gray shades on the lighthouse building.
More detail and refinement.
Blocked-in the basic tree shapes and refined a few details.
Some more tree detail added.
Some glazing on the left tree along with lighter colored leaves. This is very close to the finished painting. I only added a few more details after this step.
