A new little picture.

The road from Joaquina, oil on card, 14 x 9 cm

In the small scale -the pictures are just a little bigger than a cigarette box- the effect of brush strokes and textures are exaggerated.

I paint these plein air- it's so hot now that working for more than an hour becomes quite tiring.

I love the little back roads of Brazil- the way they are swallowed up by the incredible profusion of nature, the amazing abundance here, and of the country as unexplored. I prefer the back roads of the interior to the beaches which are a public space, too open for my tastes: I prefer the sense of privacy one gets sheltered by the trees.

Stage three, two Summer paintings.

There is something heavy about "A House among woods", caused by the starkness of tonal difference between sunlit and shaded areas. I shall have to attempt to relieve this with dabbed brushstrokes of leaves. The composition is also heavy, however: the landscape dense beneath the sky.

Also, the canvas is not lightly accepting paint. I don't know why, I think it needs to dry more. I might leave it for a fortnight.

"Trees at the end of a Road" is happier, perhaps becase I invested less in making it, the result is lighter, fresher. I like the art noveau rythms there.

Forest and Swamp- third stage

The slow addition of greens. I love the lushness of the Brazillian landscape.

I am trying to hold back from responding too rapidly with this painting and I guess it will take three more sessions. I'm enjoying the slowness, with a week between sessions.

It makes taking photos seem glib or shallow, as if imagemaking using photography is to easy that, ironically, it actually prvents one from really looking in the first place;.

Second stage.

The difficult second stage: difficult, because the pictures have neither the liveliness of the first, drawing and underpainting stage, nor the quality of finish of the final stage which is still some way to come (usually about three sessions away).

Forest and Swamp - first stage

Perhaps you can detect the forms of trees and bushes in this underpainting? And on the right hand side you might be able to discern distant fields between the trees.

I shall leave this to dry for a week, then return to it. The slowness of oils is fustrating and immensely satisfying at the same time, forcing you, as it does, to appreciate more and more- what a contrast to the glib speed of photography! On Monday, weather depending, i shall tackle on of the other two newly begun pictures, illustrated earlier this week.

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Oil primed canves allows the paint to sink and become absorbed- had I used an acryllic primed canvas, the paint would not settle into the canvas, and each layer would more or less eradicate the one previous, so that the resulting picture would lack depth and richness.

Pastoral

Some more images from the recent "Homage to Corot" series.