After completing a series of paintings of Zion National Park, I started going through my old European sketchbooks and images. That prompted a couple of new paintings from my last trip to Switzerland. We mostly stayed in the southern part of Switzerland along the Alps, and the architecture had a definite Romanesque or Italian influence. I found this big old barn as I hiked in the foothills near Chur.
I begin the painting with a light pencil sketch on Arches watercolor paper 140lb. My initial washes are very loose, and I can tighten the edges later.The distant hills and soft trees are painted wet in wet which naturally diffuses the eges. This gives the illusion of distance caused by aerial perspective. Notice how I allow pigment to mingle in the wet areas such as the shadow on the right of the barn.
As I move further into the painting I can delineate edges by using darker values. This is the pioint where the loose images begin to take on more form and shape.We see edges due to changes in value or color. The greatest attention is drawn to areas of highest contrast.
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