Mike's paintings (1 Viewer)

Apodemus · Feb 12, 2009

I'm fortunate enough to live and work in the West Highlands of Scotland. One of the most beautiful parts of "my patch" is the Sunart Oakwoods - a glorious semi-natural habitat dripping with ferns, mosses and lichens.

This is the first stage of a painting in acrylic. There's a long way to go on it yet but I'm just trying to get the overall shape and solidity of the oak tree to start with. When that's sorted out, I'll lighten the background and get a dappled sunlight effect, then really drape the tree in polypody ferns and oak leaves and probably tuck a greater spotted woodpecker (or maybe a woodpigeon) in there somewhere.

It's my first tentative post in the art forum, but I have been very inspired by the masters who post here regularly. Any constructive feedback and criticism is more than welcome.

Cheers

Mike

nickderry · Feb 12, 2009

You've got the light just right - a superb translucent canopy - glad to see you posting, and looking forward to seeing more.

timwootton · Feb 12, 2009

Just to start by saying a huge welcome and well done on this first post Mike. This looks to be an extremely confident start to what promises to be a stonking painting (the description sounds tremendous). I think the colours and contrast are working very nicely and the composition, as it stands, is strong and interesting.
Now you've done the hard bit of the first post, don't be hanging about and keeping us waiting.
Looking forward to seeing the development of this one.

Apodemus · Feb 12, 2009

Tim/Nick

Thanks to both of you for that hugely encouraging welcome, it means a lot.

Mike

Woody · Feb 12, 2009

Great start Mike, good to see more people taking up the challenge and joining in here. Great spot or woodie will fit in just right, I'm looking forward to the dappled sunlight, it should cheer me up after all the cr*p weather we've been having lately!

Mike

buzzard12 · Feb 13, 2009

Woody said:
Great start Mike, good to see more people taking up the challenge and joining in here. Great spot or woodie will fit in just right, I'm looking forward to the dappled sunlight, it should cheer me up after all the cr*p weather we've been having lately!

Mike

Greetings and welcome Mike, brilliant to have a new contributor.The painting looks great already, the strong shapes of the oak branches already anchor the image firmly, look forward to seeing this one develop....

jomo · Feb 14, 2009

Fantastic start, so very warm and green and inviting (I want to huddle up there and wait out the rest of this chilly Canadian winter!). Welcome to the forum!

ARTHUR BISHOP · Feb 15, 2009

I am looking forward to seeing a lot more and welcome to the forum

timwootton · Feb 16, 2009

Hiya Mike - is it just me, or is the image not loaded properly?

Apodemus · Feb 16, 2009

Hmm. No, it's not just you. I hoped it was just me.

I'll try again.

Apodemus · Feb 16, 2009

OK, trying again.

Stage 2. I've modelled the tree some more, and lightened the background. Starting to experiment with scale and placement of foliage masses - the bird is just sketched in for the moment to test for position, and will be overpainted later.

Mike

timwootton · Feb 16, 2009

It's there now Mike.
This has really thrown me - I was expecting the woodpecker to be 1/4 frame, half-way up the main trunk - yet there it is, lower right. This really does give the tree a sense of scale, suggesting the huge size and structure. Like the way the background is developing too.

Andrew H · Feb 16, 2009

Love the scale thing going on here.....

Apodemus · Feb 17, 2009

Thanks, both. I'm going to increase the size of the bird a bit, but the whole thing is about the massiveness of the oak, so it has to stay as a supporting character.

Progress will be slow, as I'm having to share a tiny dining table in a holiday cottage for the next few weeks (burst pipe in our house over the New Year freeze-up). I'm also working on some mountain paintings for the Fort William Mountain festival in March, and they have to be submitted soon.

Mike

ARTHUR BISHOP · Feb 17, 2009

Love the design. and goodluck in the festival.

Strandman · Feb 18, 2009

Apodemus said:
Thanks, both. I'm going to increase the size of the bird a bit, but the whole thing is about the massiveness of the oak, so it has to stay as a supporting character.

..

Mike

Congrats on that strong sense of purpose- it's so easy to start with a bold plan and then have things creep towards middle size, middle position.

Apodemus · Mar 6, 2009

As I said, the oak had to take a back seat, but I got these three mountain paintings ready for an exhibition tomorrow, so you can see what I have been working on. You'll just have to imagine some wildlife tucked away among the crags!

Mike

timwootton · Mar 6, 2009

Very adventurous pieces Mike, each meritorious in their own right, but I think the last one has enormous interest; the perspective and viewpoint is eyecatching and the palette is really well considered. Love it - and good luck in the show.
We'll be staying at the Ben Nevis campsite in early April - really looking forward to being in that part of the world again.

nickderry · Mar 11, 2009

these have got everything, form, tone, colour and strong compositions - none of the flat mountains that are sometimes seen, these are the real deal

Apodemus · May 22, 2009

timwootton said:
Just to start by saying a huge welcome and well done on this first post Mike. This looks to be an extremely confident start to what promises to be a stonking painting (the description sounds tremendous). I think the colours and contrast are working very nicely and the composition, as it stands, is strong and interesting.
Now you've done the hard bit of the first post, don't be hanging about and keeping us waiting.
Looking forward to seeing the development of this one.

I think you jinxed me there!

I eventually finished this, but sort of lost the nerve to post it. Here it is anyway in its finished version. I trust you weren't really hanging around waiting.

Mike

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