Painting process | Through the Trees From the Castle, Koroni
As I walked along the castle walls in Koroni, Greece, I found this opening in the trees with a view across the beach to the distant headland. The row of three characterful palm trees held my attention and the gorgeous soft afternoon light made me want capture it in paint.
I wanted this painting to feel like a window into the Mediterranean, with its lush foliage, intense blues and soft, warm light.
Preliminary sketches and studies
I started with some very rough sketches, exploring the big shapes and trying to work out how much foreground greenery to include. I decided on a slightly wider composition so the tree at the top is balanced with the foliage at the bottom.
Next I did a small sketch to distinguish the values in the scene. The foreground is the darkest, while the lightest parts are the most distant elements, which helps to create depth in the painting.
I painted this little sketch to trial the colour in the scene. I struggled to layer the greens in the tree. The distant mountains aren’t cool enough which visually pulls them forward.
This was my second paint sketch. In this one I made the distant land much cooler and lighter which created that depth I was after. I also got the green highlights more accurate in the foreground.
These sketches help me to be decisive and understand my colour mixes for the final piece.
The painting process
I was so engrossed that I forgot to take a photo of my drawing! So this is the first photo I got.
I started with a dark green underpainting, which I chose to help ground the dark foreground. This was great for the leafy foreground but it made it quite difficult to see what I was doing in the rest of the painting. I had to trust the process and reassess my colours once I had the whole canvas blocked in.
Here is the canvas almost entirely blocked in. I was avoiding the big task of starting the leaves on the tree by adding texture to the bottom half of the painting, despite it being a rough first layer.
I layered warmer blues in the water to bring in texture, waves and a sense of the water receding. I used these blues to carve out the palm trees’ leaves to a more accurate shape.
I spent a long time painting the palm trees so how the light hits the leaves gives them shape and movement.
I used a stiff bristled brush to make the scratchy marks for the pine needles.
I used light blue to carve out negative space between the leaves in the tree at the top of the canvas and dark green to deepen the shadows in them. This gives them a much more realistic shape. Adding more shadow over the top of the highlights gives the sense that the leaves are backlit.
This was a long, but satisfying process. I was super happy with how it pulled the whole painting up so it felt cohesive.
To make the highlights sing I deepened the shadows on the palm trees, the foreground leaves and the balustrade. I also added some peach and green highlights to the palm leaves.
I included the balustrade in the composition to provide context to the birds-eye view. But I didn’t want it to be distracting and hold attention. Darkening it here helped to ground it in amongst the foreground.
I also added some final pine needles to the top right corner to close off this edge. This keeps the viewers eyes within the painting and creates the window effect I was after.
Finished!
“Through the Trees From the Castle, Koroni”
60 x 80 cm, oil on linen.
This painting started out as a struggle and then steadily came together to a painting I’m really proud of. There’s so much texture and life in this piece, but it also feels serene.
Details
I love how the palm trees look like they’re dancing in the breeze, each with their own character.
I used a pale orange glaze over the background mountains to soften the edges.
I painted the pine needles in a whispy, rough way so they provide layers for depth but aren’t distracting.
If you look very closely there are two tiny people walking on the beach.
I used a tiny brush to split the big expanse of green into little leaves. The result is simultaneously chaotic and precise, which I think mimics nature.
