I had a satisfyingly productive painting weekend in the studio. The karoo painting started in South Africa finally got completed. I stuck to a limited palette, using colours that aren’t usually typical in my paintings. As a general rule I go for vibrant colours, but this time yellow ochre and cobalt blue resonated with the subject.

On a walk through the trees on Saturday afternoon, I found the subject of my little exercise for the week. Winter tree trunks were decked with ivy in various shades of green and creamy yellow, and a few leaves on a section of vine proved ideal models.

A base of Aureolin with Prussian blue dropped in very wet created some fascinating  effects. In one instance, the yellow is too bring for realism, but I quite like the intensity of it.

On a different paper, the combination produced a beautiful granulation effect.