Author Archives: Jenny Keal

Stage 4 of my competition entry

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I have made further progress on my painting for the Cox & Kings Morocco competition: The middle distance in a landscape painting is often a tricky area to tackle. It’s important to keep in mind the relative size of features compared to the foreground such as trees and bushes;   the colour temperature must be carefully controlled;  and we must resist the temptation to render too much detail to features that are distant.

morocco stage4

Stage 4 – middle distance

In the photograph there were very strong, sharply defined cloud shadows on the hills on the right and initially I painted these in as they were in the photograph but I quickly realised that they were drawing the eye too much and would compete with my focal point so I softened them considerably. The hills on the left were lighter in tone with less tonal contrast so there was no need to soften them too much.

The next stage will be the focal point, the building, and the foreground. See you in a few days.

 

Stage 2 & 3 of my competition entry

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Yesterday I made more progress on my painting for the Cox & Kings Morocco competition: Stage 2 – Sky: When painting landscapes, I generally work from the top of a painting downwards. This serves two purposes. Firstly it helps prevent the heel of your hand smudging the work where it rests on the support and secondly it helps create a sense of recession. If you think of the landscape in terms of distance, the objects farthest away are usually lighter in tone, cooler in colour and less distinct. Translating this into the painting process means that you use paler, cooler colours in the distance and less detail. By working down the support you can remember that meme in your choice of colour and tone.

morocco stage2

Stage 2 – Sky

Stage 3 – The mountains: The sky was painted down over the drawn lines that defined the mountain tops. This is to ensure that there are no gaps between the sky and mountains and also to give the impression that the sky is, in effect, behind the mountains. Sticking to cooler colours and pale tones, the mountains are painted with sharp edges in places and softer edges in others so that there is not a hard line all the way across the painting. Soft edged cloud shadows helps define the ridges.

morocco stage3csm (1)

Stage 3 – the mountains

The next step will be coming soon.

Stage 1 of my competition entry

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In my last post I undertook to keep you up to date with the progress of my competition entry for the Cox & Kings Morocco Art competition. I discussed some of my first thoughts on the treatment of the subject in the previous post and as you can see from the initial drawing I have moved the small building on the right towards the centre a little and given it more prominence so that it will act as a focal point.

Stage 1 - initial drawing

Stage 1 – initial drawing

My next consideration will be the treatment of the sky which will set the mood of the whole painting. The atmosphere in the photograph hardly needs changing but I need to simplify the clouds and to reduce the prominence of the distant mountain range which could form a strong line across the painting if I am not careful. I also want to make the most of the cloud shadow on the low hills in the middle distance to emphasize the building.

I will post the next step in a few days.

Back in the Saddle

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As many of you know, this summer I have been recovering from an operation. I am doing really well now and almost back to normal. I want to thank you all for your kind wishes over the past months. Unfortunately, my painting has been sadly neglected during this time but I can feel the stirrings of inspiration starting again and the autumn colours are tempting me out to sketch.

Fortuitously, only a week ago, I was invited by Cox & Kings to take part in their Morocco Art competition along with four other artists and this has given me the impetus I need to get painting again. I travelled to Morocco with David in 1993 and was captivated by the sumptuous colour in Marrakesh, the fascinating culture of the Berber tribes, the architecture, from Mosaic Palaces to mud brick dwellings, and the magnificent mountain scenery of the Atlas Mountains.  Really looking forward to a chance to win one of Cox & Kings’ Morocco holidays.

So where to begin? I have chosen the scene below of the Atlas Mountains with a scattering of buildings. The first step is to start planning my treatment of the subject. My initial thoughts are that the atmosphere and colour of the photograph below will hardly need any adjustment but I want to bring the low building on the right more towards the centre of the painting to make a more satisfying composition and to provide me with a focal point. I have not started on the painting yet so I will post some of the stages as I proceed, so that you can share the experience with me. This is a high risk strategy for my reputation and if it all goes horribly wrong you will, hopefully, be encouraged to take risks with your own painting.

Errachidia, Morocco

Errachidia, Morocco (Photo)

I will post the first stage soon. I wish my fellow competition entrants, Concetta Perôt, Alan Reed, Vandy Massey and Kim Dellow, good luck.

A bump in the road

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Every now and again our plans are thrown off course and we have to adapt to the new circumstances. In April I suffered one such ‘bump in the road’,  a slipped disc and I ended up in hospital. At the same time I was given the news that I need a major operation for an unrelated issue this summer so I have had to cancel all my demonstrations and events for the foreseeable future. I am sorry if any of these cancellations have affected you. I may not be accompanying David at his events either and will miss seeing old and new friends. but I hope to be back on course again by the autumn.

The pastel painting below was the last demonstration I did this year, for Llantarnam Grange Art Group in Cwmbran in March. The theme was ‘creating atmosphere’ and pastel is the ideal medium for this purpose. Softening the edges of the distant features in order to create a sense of atmosphere is relatively simple with pastel. To create this effect of clouds over the hilltops, just gently stroke some of the sky colour down over the distant hills. This pushes them into the distance.

Crickadarn

Crickadarn, Mid Wales, Pastel by Jenny Keal

The same method was used lower down in the distant hills, softening the green colour of the lower slopes into the blue/grey. This softness is emphasized by making the edges of the focal point sharper and the tones darker. All these techniques help to create the illusion of recession in a painting.

You can see this technique and many others, demonstrated in live action on my DVD, Painting with Pastels, available in our online shop.

I hope you find time to get out in the countryside this summer to paint and sketch and store up subjects for the coming winter months. Nature has a way of invigorating and at the same time restoring tranquility in our busy lives.