Hope's Art Journey

I have had a fascination with this clump of palms across the road from our place in Suwannee, FL.  I've photographed and painted them from several directions.  This one is from a photo that was not well lit by the sun but still showed the wonderful rust and gold colors of the marsh.  I started the 6" x 6" gessobord by spreading heavy gel/molding paste across one way with a very large pallette knife.  I didn't really try to pattern it, just let it happen.  Then, I washed a coat of yellow ochre over the entire board as I usually do.  My photo reference has been taped for composition and measured for use with a proportion wheel.  It just makes it easier to start a painting.  The first step is to establish the horizon line which, in this case, is one-third of the way down.  I did some drawing into the gel with a stylus trying to get a texture like I used with etching.  It established the major lines and dark areas with a method of cross-hatching.  The next step I follow is to wash in the major areas with red.  Between the yellow and red, you have an underpainting that shows through and glows where you don't cover it.  I continued to paint from dark to light in the traditional method, finding the scratched in areas not really helping but liking the gel pattern.  It especially worked well with the clouds where I had to improvise the shapes and with the water pattern.