the merits of skies

I have three works to the same stage. I like to work on more than one painting on a theme at a time, being able to keep on working on one while I am letting another sink into my subconscious, or move away to another when I am working too closely on one.
I would like to have a couple of smaller detail works underway as well, as I think that working in close-up on part of the ruins will feed really well into my treatment of the more distant ruins.

I am taking a lunch break now and will come back and decide on the skies for each one. For me the sky sets the mood of the painting. Often I underpaint a sky (as I have done here) and then when the middle and foreground are finished I come back and overpaint it. That way I can adjust any colour intensity, blend or contrast on the sky line, and generally work in a manner that suits me. If I don't have the sky in place first I feel as though I am painting in a void.

I have been watching the sky reveal itself this morning. It is a glorious NZ sky today, after a few short showers to wash away that ever-present smoke. It ranges from the lightest cerulean blue to an intense cobalt. These are the colours you need to be really careful of in painting as they tend not to sit well in most homes. I'll be adding ultramarine to tone it down and keep the works unified.

Food time! (Wishes she hadn't made such a big pot of lentils... perhaps it could be eggs or fish fingers today?)

Today I am grateful for the clear skies ahead of me.