“Pisa Range”
Oil on board
495mm x 295mm
19½” x 11½”
© Susan Harrison-Tustain

The first light fall of Autumn snow dusts the peaks of the Pisa mountain range. Snow clouds begin to envelope the pinnacles bringing with it, the excitement of the change of season.  We call this place “Central” (Central Otago, New Zealand) – austere, raw, beautiful, haunting, vast skies above rugged ranges. Captivating, compelling and beckoning.

The oil painting technique I used for this painting began with an underglaze of a grey/purple. Once dry, I then used the block-in oil painting method of creating the basic ‘local’ color of each area. I used these colors as the basic mix to establish the different areas in the painting: variations of greys with tints of purple for the clouds, dark grey/greens for the foreground, pale purple/greys for the light areas of the mountains and of course blue for the sky – all helped me establish the basic painting layers. I left my underpainting to show through in some areas – especially in the mid toned mountain peaks.

The next step is to observe the changing colors within each section, mix those colors and apply the detail – keeping it true to nature. Each area has a myriad of hues that describe this light snow fall, the forms – with sharp as well as rolling edges and shapes.  There are many painting lessons within each of these subjects. Too many to write here of course. For those of you who are artists and would love to learn how to paint skies, clouds, mountains, falling snow  – I hope to release an oil painting DVD in 2012 that will cover all these things and so much more.

I also plan to release a new watercolor DVD. This one will focus on mini studies of many subjects: capturing numerous subjects. If you are not currently on my mailing list – do join up.