Light through trees

A good crowd attended our first long awaited evening meeting of 2026 which was a return visit from popular Artist Owen Williams.

His focus was “Silhouettes and tonal perspective” which he created by viewing the canvas like a stage set, with foreground trees receding toward a sunlit background.

Beginning with a startling cadmium red underpainting on his canvas, Owen used Filbert brushes, which enable smallish brush marks both thick and thin from one brush.

Instead of black for silhouetted foreground trees he mixed violet from blue and red, then added a little yellow, and using tonal perspective (with a gradual addition white to the mix, for violets greys,)which followed the recession in size of the trees. Background foliage and sky was painted as negative shapes around the trees ,where he could cut into the branches defining them more clearly, and  with occasional glimpses of red revealed to create a glow. Adding white to yellow (for opacity )for sunlight and using this mix to “split the v’s”  made branches in silhouette against a yellow sun. The final backdrop used a bright cool blue for sky (add hint of red for violet to complement the yellow,) again in negative spaces.

Owen’s was a minimal palette of Winsor blue, lemon yellow and Alizarin, and he made  the following recommendations for colour mixes,

After mixing your greens add red to subdue the bright hues as required, so you are not frantically looking for tubes of ready mix whilst you paint.

Similarly making red and yellow mix -then add blue , for a range of browns umbers etc.

Using turquoise, magenta ,yellow, as your palette ,creates a warm Mediterranean feel.

Instead of using black, mix violet from your blue and red, add yellow for darks and add white for greys.

An absorbing demo full of useful tips, if you want to know more, he will be holding a Workshop on 25th April 10 -4 pm at Long load. For the only way to sign up, and secure your place; go now to “Future Workshops”.