Step by Step Large format tree painting

I have often loaned paintings to my neighbor Rosa for use at her shop and market stand. I get exposure and she gets rotating art, a win win situation for both of us. So walking past her as yet undecorated shop window on Friday, I sent her a quick text to see if she wanted my latest painting for it. She did, and early Saturday I ventured over to make a 'contactless' delivery only to find that it was FAR too big for the window. Something utterly unexpected! We have usually hung the larger pieces either in shop or the tent walls at the market and it certainly hadn't occured to me that the windows were smaller than the piece I had been working on for a while. Oh well, I guess it won't be 'on the streets' just yet.

Since beginning this post I have also begun another painting, exactly the same size as this one, but destined for a large wall. I thought it would be a good opportunity to show the stages of development of this piece.

1. This stage went really well- a few colours, a layout and a lot of wild brushstrokes, mainly in the sky area.

2. The sky somewhat in place I began to add in the peach colour I wanted to use for the diffused 'glow of light.

3. I blended a bit of white to create a gradient in the sky.

4. Before adding the first bank of clouds I marked in approximately where the foliage of the tree would be. It is purposely smaller than planned so that the tree will be 'in front of' the clouds.

5. I added the darkest shadows of the clouds first this time creating the structure and form that I wanted to use.

6. Once the clouds were in place I began to lighten them up with white. The goal is to see a right-ward sweep of the entire formation suggesting a gentle yet persistent breeze.

7. Once the clouds were in place I began developing the greenery in the picture. This is the first point at which it resembles the finished piece. Balancing the greens in the grass and foliage gives me an idea of what is lacking.

8. And what is lacking seems to be more continuity in the 'glow' throughout the whole piece. I begin adding a bit of the peach to the lower surfaces of the cloud formation. This will suggest reflected light from the horizon.

9. The tree, grass and hills receive gentle highlights as well. This helps to make the relatively large, minimalistic landscape look harmonic.

10. Once the peach is balanced throughout the image I start to soften the clouds, removing the darkest areas. They will still be visible but the result will be a fluffier, less 'chunky' cloud.

11. And now to begin 'matching' the trunk to the overall piece. I painted it in quickly in ocher to preserve the 'glow while developing the foliage. I want the image to be soft in the end so I created tonal depth without adding too much detail to the foliage itself. I also added a few more layers of hills in the background.

12. Once the crown was done I added the darker structure lines to the wood of the trunk.

13. This was further developed with mid tones

14. And finally I touched up the final shadows and highlights and made sure that the tree had a shadow on the grass below.

I hope you enjoyed watching me struggle through the process:) And I hope that if you paint it motivates you to keep working on things you are dissatisfied with until you have them the way you want them.

The art supplies used in this painting are:

Titanium White acrylic Paint

DaVinci Acrylic brush set

Bon Maman glass jar for washing the brushes ( I ate all the jam first)