Kaikoura Ranges Oil Painting makes the best present

I was lucky to be asked to produce a painting of Kaikoura as a surprise birthday gift from my client to her husband for a milestone birthday. Below I will show some of the steps while I painted this beautiful scene.

Photo courtesy of Neil Protheroe of Images Abound.

After sketching out the scene I started painting in the sky.

The first layer of colour put a strong foundation in place for me to add to in the following layers.

Almost done here. You can see that the houses have developed with long winter shadows extending away from the houses and trees.

Detail of houses.

Detail of mountains.

Proud as punch of this painting for the loveliest client. The colours are relaxing and I know the clients will get a great deal of enjoyment out of it.

900 x 500mm, Oil on canvas.

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Mt Aspiring Painting Finished

Finished this bad boy of Mt Aspiring last week. It ended up taking longer than I expected to complete this painting. I had thought I would try a quicker style on this but then I couldn't resist and had to put the detail back in. As I explained in an earlier post this landscape is painted from a photo I took helicoptering over the Southern Alps. I remember circling Mt Aspiring, the sharp peaks standing so impressively. There were some hikers near the top on the other side which made me feel rather lazy at that moment. I bet it was hard work getting up that high!

As always, I learn from every painting. This time I was reminded of the value of "just paint over it and start again". I had a particular corner of this painting that was not working. I struggled with it for weeks until I just went over it. Fixing the corner in a matter of minutes! Sometimes a fresh approach is all you need.

Mt Aspiring, 2017, Oil on canvas, 700 x 400mm , (27.5 in x 15.7 in)

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