Painting the greens of summer always presents a challenge when creating a summer landscape. My top tip would be to keep the use of vibrant yellow/greens to a minimum, and always keep in mind that the landscape is a living mass without hard edges.

The subject matter for this demonstration is a simplified composition of the reference photograph below, relying on colour for interest.

When painting meadows and grasslands try to keep the tonal transitions as close as possible This will automatically cancel out creating hard edges.

Reference photo

For the painting of this much visited and favourite walk in the Derbyshire Dales very close to Bradbourne village I used a prepared plywood gesso panel. This very smooth surface influences the appearance of the finished painting.

I primed the panel with two to three layers of transparent acrylic cadmium yellow, followed by a single coat of cadmium red, making sure each layer is completely dry before applying a further one.  

I then added a final coat of cadmium orange.  

This results in a vibrant red/orange ground facilitating the depth of colour from which I hope to achieve a jewel like glow.

I then placed the salient features using charcoal (see above).

Doing minimal preparation at this stage, and going straight in with colour to describe the landscape, aids keeping the painting loose and restricts the temptation to be too descriptive in the early stages.