Daily Painting - Swan on Dunsapie Loch

Swan on Dunsapie Loch- Painting number 32

Daily Painting - Original Oil Painting on canvas panel 9x6.5 inches.

Went up Arthur’s seat at the weekend to paint and sketch. Was really nice and peaceful but I got rained on couple of times.  I don’t normally do any little daily studies at the weekend as I usually need weekend time to work on my big pieces. But yesterday I just couldn’t help it as the swan sat there preening itself right in front of me for hours, which was irresistible. So my daily painting “Swan on Dunsapie Loch” was unusually painted on a Sunday.

I also started a new portrait painting, it’s still at a raw stage and will need lots of layers of glazes to give it depth, but its basic shape is getting there. The landscape in the background is Dunsapie Loch which is up at the back of Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh, Scotland. I want to capture the light you get early evening when the sun creates very dark shadows and bright white reflections on the water and vivid greens in grassland. It’s going to take a lot of glazes to get it right but I like the challenge.

Not sure what I’m going to paint in the foreground, it’s still black at the moment. Had thoughts of adding wild flowers but am really unsure. The painting needs something to break up the darkness of the seat my muse (she likes to be called 'My Muse') was sitting on. Problem is there were no wild flowers there and it might look a little odd if I just try to add some. Ahhh, I’m just going to give flowers a shot and if I don’t like the results simply paint back over them again. The painting is now going to be put away till next weekend to let the base paint dry so I can then add the glazes.

Elena xxX

Here's a close up of what it looks like at the moment without the glazes or details added 

(Yep, it looks quite odd).