Painting Process | Moonrise Over Olive Groves, Kalamata
Here is the process for my painting of the moon rising over olive groves just outside Kalamata in Greece. This painting is based on photos I took out a bus window on my way from Athens to Kalamata last year, and on a lot of studies to get the composition just right. I wanted this painting to feel simple, quiet and elegant. Painting all those olive trees with very subtle shifts from light to dark and cool to warm was way, way harder than I thought it'd be going in!
Below is a short video timelapse of this painting from start to finish.
Preliminary sketches and planning
The start: tiny thumbnail sketches exploring the composition choices - how the painting should be cropped and how I can lead the viewer’s eye within it. I added tall foreground conifers, moved the moon and adjusted the size of the foreground olive trees to create a composition with circular eye movement and plenty of sky.
Another, larger, sketch exploring an early idea for the composition and the contrast within the painting. Ultimately I decided the land needed more weight and I changed the ratio to accomodate.
A colour study I did in oil paint to explore the value relationships of dark and light muted colours in this dusky scene. The colours in the land are all within a very tight value range, which is then tricky to create depth but is important to create the serene mood I was after. Refining the composition was really satisfying, and I decided to lead the eye in a circle from the moon, along the mountains, down to the church, across to the large foreground conifers then back up to the moon.
Prepping the canvas
Next step is toning my canvases! The blue one is for this painting. I chose a cool mid-value blue to work on to reflect the cool dusk feeling. I wanted this to emanate through the painting. Also, working on a mid-value background helps to judge darks and lights. Before the coloured ground I added 3 coats of gesso to make the canvas more robust and create movement through texture.
Here, I am comparing how dark the blue background of my canvas is with the mid-value grey of my palette.
Painting
And we’re right into it! This is the first layer. I was working with soft edges to focus on getting the values right.
Bringing in the highlights and starting to refine the details in the foreground.
Resolving the detail in the distant blue mountain. This was a matter of a lot of push and pull to add variation that creates a sense of the volume of the mountain, but eliminate enough detail so it still feels distant.
In this photo you can see that I’ve started adding texture and refining the volumes of the olive trees in the foreground and resolving the edges by making them harder where needed.
Almost finished! I spent hours on the sky, bringing that warm dusky glow into it with broken colour.
My palette. Mixing so many subtle greens to shift the warmth and darkness across the painting.
Painting all those olive trees with very subtle shifts from light to dark and cool to warm was a fun challenge - there’s no big light/dark contrast to rely on to create shape and depth here!
The finished painting
Here is the finished piece!
A close-up of the moon, mountains and foreground trees. There’s a very subtle glow of warm orange on the tree tops under the moon. Here you can see the paint texture in the moon and trees.
A close-up of the little Greek town in the foothills of the mountains. I kept the buildings fleeting and suggested except for the church. I let the light catch the edges of the brushstrokes in this photo to show you the texture!
This painting pushed me to refine my understanding of light, depth, and subtlety. It was a rewarding challenge, and I’m thrilled to share the final piece with you. I hope you’ve enjoyed following along with my process!
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