Paint a Landscape in Oils with Raymond Whitehouse

Shropshire Farm, oil, (10” x 14”)

Taken from the March 1999 issue of Leisure Painter, Raymond Whitehouse shows how to paint a landscape in oils using just three colours plus white.

As a landscape painter I paint on location as often as I can. This has led me to paint in a direct manner, using oils, which I find are ideal for my small landscapes. By direct I mean mixing the colours, brushing them on to the board or canvas and leaving them with the minimum of disturbance so that, hopefully, they will remain clean and fresh. Painting in this way, the landscapes can obviously be completed in a relatively short time, but this does not mean that they are rushed. The main aim is to prevent overworking which can lead to muddy painting.

I paint on prepared boards (more about preparation later), 14” x 10” or 12” x 9”, and I often work with a palette of only three colours, plus white.

It is surprising what can be achieved using only three colours and I want to focus on this aspect in this article. For those new to painting, I will suggest a way to produce a tonal colour chart using three colours and then describe my step-by-step approach to painting Shropshire Farm using those colours.

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Making a tonal colour chart

The colours I have chosen are the primaries – French ultramarine, cadmium red and yellow ochre – plus titanium white.

It is important to get to know what you can do with the colours and a good way to achieve this is to produce a tonal colour chart similar to the one illustrated. I suggest you paint this on oil sketching paper and mix the colours with a brush.

Tonal colour chart using French ultramarine, cadmium red, yellow ochre and titanium white

After squeezing out the colours on your palette, use them full strength to paint the three columns on the left.

Start at the top with the pure colour then add increasing amounts of white as you descend, creating a tonal range from dark to light.

Use a No. 1 bristle brush for this.

Next, explore the colours in pairs. The blue and yellow will give a range of subdued greens; red and yellow a range of oranges, and the blue and red will create some wonderful purples and mauves. Use the colours full strength at first then add small amounts of white to lighten the tones.

Finally, paint a range of subtle greys. To achieve this, mix a pair of colours first then add a touch of the third. You can create shades of warm and cool greys which are an important part of landscape painting.

Many more greys than those illustrated can be created and I suggest you experiment.

Your chart can be used as a reference as we go on to paint a landscape.

Painting a landscape in three colours

Here I describe my method of painting the landscape, Shropshire Farm, using the stage-by-stage method which I use on my workshops.

Priming the board

The painting support is a hardboard panel, 10” x 14”, which had three coats of acrylic gesso. If you prefer, use a canvas panel, Daler Board or similar. As I like to work on a slightly tinted ground, I painted over the board with a mix of warm grey (the three colours mixed together) thinned with plenty of white spirit.

Planning the composition

I started by planning the composition, I decided on a low horizon with a big sky and pushed the cluster of buildings off centre to the right, intending the focal point to be the light on the end of the farmhouse and the wall of the foreground barn. With the big tree behind I hoped that this would give a nice light against dark area which can be pleasing in a landscape.

The outbuildings to the left of the farm were in shadow, but I could lighten them a little as the painting developed.

Two other points to consider: where the light is coming from – the right in this instance – and trying to capture the warm day with cloud shadows being cast on the landscape.

Tonal lay-in

Shropshire Farm – tonal lay-in

Now ready to start painting, I squeezed out French ultramarine and cadmium red, put out a small blob of Liquin and added white spirit in the dipper. Mixing purple with the two colours and adding Liquin to it, I laid in the tonal composition using the small, round, nylon brush. The darker tones were painted full strength and for the lighter tones white spirit was added to the mix.

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If you look at Shropshire Farm, Tonal Lay-in (above), you will see how the tones give the impression of light and shade and tonal recession. The only bit of perspective to look out for is in the roof of the farmhouse.

With the Liquin added, the lay-in dried in about 15 minutes. This is useful as further paint could now be applied without the underpainting picking up and muddying the colours. Some of this lay-in can also be left to form part of the finished painting.

Adding colour

Shropshire Farm – intermediate stage

Yellow ochre and white were now added to the palette. Using the No. 8 bristle brush, the blue for the sky was mixed with ultramarine and plenty of white, with a touch of red added. This was painted from the top, around the cloud shapes, with more white and a touch more red added as it descended towards the horizon. By doing this the sky was slightly lightened and warmed in colour as it descended.

The clouds were mixed with yellow ochre and plenty of white. Bearing in mind the direction of light, the left-hand side of the clouds was slightly blended with the blue to create shadow. The definition of the tree was lost a little, but this could be restated later.

To bring the painting up to the Shropshire Farm, Intermediate Stage, above, the distant Clee hills were stated with a medium blue grey – blue plus white and red. A few dark and medium greens – blue and yellow – were indicated on the landscape.

Distance to foreground

Trying to keep things simple, I worked from the distance to the foreground, completing it as I went. (Use the colour chart to match the colours). The distant trees were blue/green and the middle distance field was green, lightened with white to indicate the light coming across it.

The outbuildings to the left of the farm were restated in the same purple as the lay-in. As I suggested earlier, I decided to paint the building on the extreme left in a lighter tone as it was catching the light. The fence and the left-hand bush, painted in various greens, were put in next and the little bit of brickwork (a nice complementary red) completed the middle distance.

The shadow side of the farm went in next with red/grey – red, blue, and touch of white – and a darker mix of the blue and red for the roof.

The big tree was restated – darker green for the left-hand side, mid to light green for the right. Note that some of the dark purple lay-in was allowed to show through. The branches were indicated with the dark roof colour. Various greens were used for the right-hand bushes, again indicating that the light was coming for the right. The area to the left of the farm, although detailed, was treated simply with short, loaded brushstrokes to suggest detail rather than painting it.

Warm and cool greys (refer to the colour chart) were mixed for the foreground barn and that wonderful light on the gable end of the farm was white slightly tinted with orange. The dark green foreground shadows were next and then, with a fully loaded brush, the lights across the middle foreground went in simply and directly.

Finishing touches

Shropshire Farm - Finished stage, oil, (10” x 14”)

After a few final touches – the windows and chimney pots, etc. – the painting was put into a trial frame. It was finished.

I hope you will enjoy painting this project in the direct manner described and will have a go at some of your own compositions using just the three colours.

The same three colours were used in the two paintings below.

Although I had to wait for the tide to go out to paint Low Tide, Wells next the Sea, it was well worth it, as the composition turned out to be excellent.

Another seascape, Bright Days, St. Ives, was enjoyable to paint in the wonderful light in this Cornish fishing port.