August 22, 2022
An ideal place--somewhere in a daydream. Take a walk and stay awhile. What will you find under the trees and between sunbeams?
Painting specifics:
Turner professional watercolours | Hahnemule 140lb cold-pressed paper | 9"x12" | June 2022
Availability:
Available for purchase
~Inspiration and thoughts behind the painting~
This was my first time trying out Hahnemule paper, and I absolutely loved this paper. I've been on the search for replacement paper since the paper I used to use was discontinued, but now I'm certain I've found the exact kind of paper I was looking for. I'm very happy that I finally tried this paper!
I was sitting by my desk thinking of what to paint on my new paper and what subject would give me a good understanding of the paper. I lifted my head from the desk and looked up out my widow and let my mind wander as I usually do when looking out of windows, and after a short while, the inspiration to make this painting came to me. That's the reason why I named this painting 'Somewhere in a Daydream' because it came to me while I was thinking and daydreaming of what to paint.
Since it was June and the wild roses were blooming, I had roses on my mind, and I was thinking of painting something in honour of wild rose season, and that's where the idea to put a rose bush in the scene came from.
This scene makes me think of a meadow on an old farm. I can imagine the rose bush was originally growing along a fence; the fence is gone now but the rose still remains. This painting also reminds me of the summers I spent in Saskatchewan on my Grandma's acreage. We would go for long walks around the area to old fields and meadows were there used to be cattle or where old homesteads once were. This painting gives me nostalgia and it brings back the feelings of visiting those places.
~The painting process~
I started off by adding some phthalo blue for the sky and background, and then blotted with a tissue three shafts of sunlight - I can't remember why I decided to add those sunbeams, but anyway - I also spent some time perfecting the shafts of light with a damp brush. The sunbeams aren't perfect, but my paint was drying so I just had to leave them be.
Then I added some yellow-orange to the farthest grass to show that that area is in the warmest light. As the grass got closer, I added more green to it. Before I started painting, I sketched out the trees and the rose bush so I knew where I wanted them later on. I painted the pink flowers and buds first, then I worked on the poplar tree behind the bush. I painted the first yellow and green layer on the small spruce tree in front of the rose bush, then I went with water around the small trees and the flowers with water to do a bit of wet-in-wet for the base of the bush. I then painted the first layer on the other two spruce trees. I did that by first painting the tree with yellow and light green and then while that was still wet I dropped in some cool green and blue to the shadow areas. I added some more details to the poplar tree, and then to the rose bush and the spruce trees to give them more dimension and shadows.
At first I was going to leave the background void of shape and detail, but I wasn't really liking it. I added some shrubs, but it still wasn't really working. I then got the idea to add barely-there distant trees to help give what was empty space some meaning and depth. I really loved how it looked! That was the missing piece! Since I liked it so much, I added some more distant trees, but I still wanted the background to be simple and open enough to let the light in.
I hadn't planned on painting the leaves of the poplar tree, but it looked a bit odd without any. I added the suggestion of leaves to the tree on my initial sketch to see if I would like how it looked in the composition. I thought it look pretty good, so I decided to go down that path and see where it ended up. I haven't been great at painting trees with their leaves on, so I was a little scared to do so on this painting... but I figured that I should be able to paint deciduous trees in every seasonal stage, so I just went for it. The leaves may not be ideal, but I was really pleased with the result in the end!
Like with the other trees, I started with a yellow-green base, and then added more colour and and definition later. I left some of the yellow-green to suggest dappled sunlight and added some blue-green for shadows to try and give the tree some dimension.
I added some more layers and details here and there and some grass in the foreground, and it was finished! I still struggle with depicting light in my paintings, so I may not have gotten all of the highlights and shadows placed accurately, but I'm not sure if that really matters. This painting only took a fews days to complete and it was a joy to make.
Thank you very much for reading! Please contact me if you have questions or inquiries.
-Cheyenne
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