Summer idyll at the brook - Oil painting with MUSSINI® finest artists´ resin-oil colours - from Werner Maier

Step 1

I prime the white canvas with Schmincke PRIMAcryl® in light ochre andlet the paint dry. Now I sketch the motive with a Schmincke pastel stick inEnglish red. For the composition the length of the tree trunk at the streamis important. You should not sketch the upper tree up to the middle of thepainting. If it is shorter, the trunk appears further away. In this way, theviewer will be lead more into the depth of the painting.

Step 2:

Firstly, I apply the lightest and darkest parts of the picture with PRIMAcryl® Titanium white and Raw Umber and let the paint dry. You can sketch the colour areas loosely. They are important to get an idea of the light-dark parts in the painting.

Step 3

Now I begin to paint the most distant areas of the landscape withmy resin-oil colours MUSSINI®. I mix the colour for the sky withRoyal Blue deep, Titanium White and Cobalt-cerulean blue. I paint the distant part of the forest with Prussian Paris blue, lightened with Titanium opaque white. I then paint the field with Lemon yellow, Yellowish green and Naples yellow deep.

Step 4

I'm fascinated by the reflections in the brook. One could say that the blue light spots of the sky dance in the waves. The sun falls on the water surface in the middle of the picture. This bright yellow sunlight forms a beautiful colour contrast to the blue shades. A mixture of Cadmium yellow hue, Indian yellow and Zinc white makes them glow.The green shades on the water surface from the embankment are the ideal transition between the blue and yellow colourplay. I apply Ultramarine blue light, Cobalt-cerulean blue, Indigo and Ivory black withloose and expressive colour strokes. Ivory black is very important. This extremely dark colour increases the contrast and the plasticity of the wave movements. Isolated strokes with Royal blue deep increase the colour strength. The green tones result from the mixture of blueand yellow. To increase the luminosity of the green even more, I putspots of Yellowish green on top of them. The Titanium opaque white additionally increases the light character. The reddish shore plants become visible in the white reflections through traces of Alizarin madder lake. I paint the light spots with Cold grey 1 and thus integrate thebright yellow into the colour rhythm.

Step 5

In the next step I frame the watercourse with shore plants. Firstly, I create the shadows between the water movements and the embankment with Vandyke brown and Burnt Siena. Then I create the branches sticking out at the upper left edge of the painting with Raw Siena and Vandyke brown. Now I set the iridescent foliage with Yellowish green, Oriental green, Sap green, Natural Bohemian greenearth and Burnt umber darkened in parts with Indigo. I use Orientalgreen and Cobalt turquoise to achieve the colour of the leaves that rise into the darkness. They reflect the coolness of the shadow. The yellow flowers painted with Lemon yellow on top of the bush become a decisive colour accent in this painting.

Step 6

The icing on the cake of this impressionistic colour symphony are the pink to deep red flowers that shine in every imaginable nuance. I darken the colours Cadmium red light, Translucent Magenta and Alizarin madder lake with Ultramarine blue light in the shadow zones ofthe hanging bushes and brighten them with Titanium opaque white in the light areas.