Oil Paintings, Plein Air, Prints, Hand Drawn Tessellations

This post will describe the development of a new oil painting. The island of Capri, Italy is a beautiful jewel in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is a very popular tourist destination. We visited it in 2018 and this painting was completed from several photographs I took during our travels.

I’ll post the finished painting first and then describe the four stages in its development. It was completed in 12 days from May 14th to May 26th, 2023.

Palette; titanium white, cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, cadmium red light, manganese violet, cadmium yellow light, yellow ochre, pthalo green, burnt sienna,

First Stage

The first stage I determined the location of the horizon and decided the frame and relative size of the foreground and hillside. The first values were also worked out.

Second Stage

This stage I adjusted the composition and foreground plants and the sea mounts. The sea color and shadows were developed along with the hillside colors.

Third Stage

In this stage I spent time selecting colors ( cad red light and cad yellow light) that would make the composition memorable and more vivid than the actual photographs. I wanted a stylized look and was not trying to match the actual color of the photos.

Fourth and Final Stage

I decided to rework the sea colors somewhat and added greens into the reflections and further refined the shadows on the hillside and sea mounts. I added color to the left foreground and shadow to the right foreground. I tried to balance color harmony and provide contrast to lead the eye across and into the painting.