As I'm exploring how to paint convincing skies and clouds, I've been digging through my Pictures folder and found a lovely photo taken on the hills between Montséret and Saint André de Roquelongue, early one morning, two years ago.
The Corbières region is one of my favourite places on earth. So quiet. So rural. And such good food!!
That morning, we got up early so we could get a walk on the hills before it got too hot. The mist was still lifting and the light was golden.
This is the final version
This is an earlier version - it was too bright, although I do like the colour of the sky on the left-hand side
Here is how the first painting was started, from the sky down. I had to lift paint in the dark cloud and over the mountains to soften the effect
I always do a sketch in my sketchbook to figure out how I'm going to approach a painting, deciding on colours and composition. I still think the sky was best in this version!! Sometimes, it's hard to reproduce the freshness of a quick sketch in a finished painting. But it was a useful exercise to help me decide that I didn't want the tree right in the middle!
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