Bulahdelah River Painting

Bulahdelah Revisited is a stunning landscape oil painting of the Bulahdelah River. We travel from Sydney to the mid-north coast of NSW regularly to visit family members living in the area.  I was always looking at the area around Bulahdelah for painting opportunities but would never stop because it was a long drive just for a weekend away, and I just wanted to reach our destination. Anyway, one time we decided to stop and walk around a bit. I took some snapshots and I was immediately excited, the area was so beautiful and I knew I had some great painting opportunities.

Life got in the way but eventually I got around to it. About 3 years after taking the photos, I finally had a gesso primed and sealed board on my studio wall with a palette of oil paint on the ready. It was an easy painting, which isn’t always the case. Everything flowed, mixing colours, brush strokes, creating shapes, continuity. The first pass was finished within one painting session. As always, I let the first layer of paint dry for a few weeks before coming back to add highlights and details. Once again, I was really enjoying the painting process and happy with the aesthetics of the final painting, I loved it.

In truth, I fell in love with this painting but it was commissioned by our friends Robert & Kathy, so technically it didn’t belong to me. This painting was gifted to Kathy’s mum for her birthday. The painting was SOLD with the frame, which was custom-made by my brother Neil.

A big ‘shout out’ to Kathy, Robert and Neil!

When working within realism, I enjoy creating landscapes with oil paint, whereas my portrait works are usually completed with graphite pencils. It takes years of dedication and observation to become highly skilled in this genre. You must learn all the fundamentals regarding colour theory, perspective, structure, and composition. If you are weak in any of these fields then your artwork will lack conviction, they will not appear to look right.
When I am working on a portrait or a figurative piece, I think about the composition first, work out the scale, followed by the structure. Once I am happy with all that, it is time to work out the form, then finally the details including tone and shading.
I approach a landscape painting in the same manner however I always start at the back of the scene and then work my way forward. Because everything in the distance is farthest away, it lacks intensity of colour (hue) thus looks faded and smaller (perspective to the horizon line).