Painting the Lake and Mountains, Outdoors in Queenstown, New Zealand - Art and Photos

Hello Steemers

Yesterday the weather in Queenstown, New Zealand where I live was perfect for painting outdoors so I set up my pochade box easel and painted on the lake front.

I'll show you my painting process and how I created this art work. Check out my short DTube video of me painting.

https://steemit.com/dtube/@samuel-earp-art/bxkml62m

This is the view I painted, I love the lake, the mountains and the willow trees on the shore.

I'm painting in oils and I start my painting by sketching out the scene with burnt umber mixed with liquin. Liquin speeds up the drying of the paint and improves the flow.

I always start by painting the sky. I paint the clouds highlights first and mix in a lot of liquin so that it'll start to dry and I will then come back to it an hour or so later and add more paint layers over the top.

I use the sky to gauge the tonality of the painting.

Next I start establishing the shadows in the mountains in the distance and the trees and rocks in the foreground. This is important because so long as my shadows are established, it doesn't matter if the light changes or the sun goes behind the clouds.

This is me painting away, the Remarkables mountains is in the distance.

Next I start working in the areas in light on the mountains. The mountains in southern New Zealand are covered in tussock grass which looks a golden yellow brown colour and in order to capture this on a canvas I must use colours that are desaturated and have a lower tint power.

The mountain in the distance is Cecil Peak and has a height of 1978 metres.

Next I start painting the areas of the willows trees that are in light and I use a much more saturated green than compared with the background mountains. This helps make the tree come forward in the painting to achieve a depth dynamic.

At this point in the painting I was attracting a crowd, you kinda get used to it when you paint outdoors and it's not something I worry about anymore.

Next I was making refinements to the sky and adding more highlights to the rocks and foliage in the forground. I was also defining the trunks of the trees.

When painting outdoors I always have my painting in the shade as it's easier on your eyes and it also means if the colours look good in the shade, they'll look even better in full sunlight.

This is the view of the lake where I was painting. Queenstown is a southern New Zealand mountain town that gets a lot of tourists all year round so there are lots of backpackers and hotels here.

I finish up my painting by painting highlights on the trees and refining the painting overall.

I finish my painting and it's well into the evening. The mountain in the distance is Walter Peak which served as the focal point for my painting.

My finished painting. 'Lake Wakatipu', 18cm x 28cm, oil on canvas panel, painted outdoors.

I hope you enjoyed my blog post. 

Check out my website for more of my art: samuelearp.com

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