Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Chimneys in snow

This painting has been sold

Acrylic on wood panel 8" x 8"

This is possibly one of the most complex paintings I have attempted so far. It had so much detail in it. I tried to ignore that and go for the big shapes. Also I limited my palette to cerulean, paynes grey, ultramarine, yellow ochre, raw umber and mars violet deep. That sounds like quite a lot of colours but some were used very sparingly. The scene is so typical of English northern hill towns. You can clearly see the row upon row of little terraced houses each with their own chimney. Not much smoke comes from them these days though as most of them have central heating fitted!

15 Comments:

Blogger marjorie wilson said...

You've really handled this subject well Sheila. Can tell immediately that it's of a Northern town...reminds me of Coronation Street!
Good new year to you and wishing you loads of success in 2009!

11:53 AM  
Blogger Keith said...

Sheila,this is beautifully observed - a great little painting!

1:31 PM  
Blogger Cooper Dragonette said...

Stunning. Stunning. Stunning.

1:54 PM  
Blogger Roxanne Steed said...

Beautiful! you've captured this scene so well (and all in an 8x8?-wow). Looks like we've had some similar weather, brrr!

2:00 PM  
Blogger JEANNE ILLENYE said...

In a word, superb! Jeanne

6:18 PM  
Blogger Sheila Vaughan said...

Thanks everyone for your kind words of encouragement. Happy New Year to all!

9:57 PM  
Blogger Stefan Nuetzel said...

I like the atmospheric mood you created in these winter paintings. And this by using acrylic colors. Bravo.

11:46 AM  
Blogger Sheila Vaughan said...

Stefan, thanks for that. One of the many things I like about acrylics is the ability to do some dry scumbling right away - you don't have to wait for the under layers to dry as you do in oils. And snow really can benefit from scumbling I think.

2:21 PM  
Blogger Theresa Evans said...

A lovely painting (again!) Sheila. Wonderful sense of space and distance too. Very atmospheric.

10:09 AM  
Blogger Sheila Vaughan said...

Thank you Theresa. Like this view. It's from the top of Cocker Hill.

5:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

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2:08 PM  
Blogger Bill Brauker said...

Sheila, I am loving all these snow paintings, especially this one.

9:51 PM  
Blogger Sheila Vaughan said...

Thank you Bill, nice of you to drop by.

1:43 PM  
Blogger Candy Barr said...

A lovely painting indeed Sheila. Mesmerizing with fascinating shapes and the subtle but strong color.

9:30 AM  
Blogger Sheila Vaughan said...

Thank you Candy.

8:39 AM  

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