Through the Lens

I don't like to work from photos when creating my landscapes. They stunt the experience I had in the landscape and can never fully record the moment and the sensory experience I had. I prefer to capture the moment in my hearts eye and work from that, aided by colour notes and a sketch maybe. When using photos to work from its easy to get caught up in the details of the photo, and not the excitement of what drew you to stop and want to paint the scene. Photos capture too much, and not enough!

I do love photography though and so I've learnt to use photography as a record of things that appeal to me. Colour, shape, seasons and mood all get recorded and these become palettes and themes for my studio paintings. To draw all this visual information together, I am starting to develop mood boards that inspire my collaged paintings.

So here is the first that I've shared, and the piece that developed from it. Its been a dry summer, and I've noticed the bleached out, muted colours of the landscape that were the inspiration for this piece, Faded Summer. Its available as a print in my Etsy shop.