Castlehaven Lane

Not making excuses by the way; but I am very short-sighted and really shouldn't try painting on such a scale as this...... the canvas size was all I could afford at the time, though! :Large cash donations to the usual place, if you wouldn't mind..............

Love the dappled light and limited pallet. I thought that short sightedness, meant that you could see OK up close and that it was distances that caused the problems, but you can obviously see well enough to paint on this scale. There is a lot in there for this size.

The lights and darks on the path work so well together. A lovely (sorry, but it is) painting :)

Your myopia has served you well, Robert, if it leads you to produce a little gem like this! The sunlight and shade on the path and the foliage are delightful.

I'm a High Myope, you see.... well, you'd expect nothing less...... In other words, I can see quite well, probably better than most people, at around 5 inches from my subject, with specs off - take it to around 8 inches, and things get very fuzzy: so specs on. A very small painting requires you to be able to see at around a foot away or somewhat more: and that's where I certainly can't see a thing without glasses, and don't see all that well with them, either: it's a cross-over point. A problem with oil, which is thick and viscous, because making small marks on a small canvas can look OK at first, and b. awful later when you take a closer look. But there we are: I'm not complaining because my eyesight is stable, and I've known painters who really had very defective, and deteriorating, vision. I just need to paint a bit bigger, that's all.

I think you've got an awful lot of subject and detail in this size canvas Robert, I would have guessed at it being much larger in scale. Did you wait for the trees to almost dry before adding the highlights?

Can't honestly remember, Fiona - but probably; I do tend to work in stages, liking the paint to get a little tacky overnight. In this one, I used Flake White, as well, which enabled faster drying. This would have worked better on a larger scale, apart from the problems I had in painting it so small - I've got a couple of others I'd like to post, but all attempts to photograph them have made them look ghastly.... which (honest!) they're not..... Photographer required, apply within.

Thanks for your reply Robert, could I possibly pick your brain about adding highlights? I want to try and do gorse in an oil painting I'm attempting....would I be better to leave it to dry completely and to get the brightest yellow, would you suggest mixing with a little white, or just go straight in with the brightest yellow I have in my goodie box?

Well - the safer way is to let the greens dry a bit, then attack them with a good orange yellow - say Cadmium, mixed with a little Lemon yellow, with straight Lemon Yellow in places. You can, with a very light touch, add quite crisp highlights to wet paint - the only slight snag there is that one tends to leave a tail of paint, from where the brush just touched the canvas. I see that in some of mine - it doesn't really matter, unless you like a very precise, neat style. By the way, it's usually only necessary to let the paint dry out, or just settle, overnight - the tacky paint you'll then have is quite receptive to added highlights.

Thanks Robert, will give it a go. I look forward to your opinion.......I think!

A super piece, Robert - very vibrant and lively.