Tuesday, May 09, 2017

Mt Ruapehu painting

Mt Ruapehu - waterccolour
When I was in New Zealand last year a snowstorm hit the Central Plateau just before I got there. The desert road opened just before I drove north from Taihape and the mountains were as beautiful as I have seen them.

Sun shone on the snow-covered slopes as I drove very slowly along the icy roads and I stopped to paint a watercolour of the view across to Mount Ruapehu.

Red canvas beginning
The painting was a pretty good approximation of what I saw except that the tussock grass was not as bright as it remained in my memory.

Earlier this year I painted Ruapehu again based on the watercolour. This time I used acrylic and a palette knife which seemed appropriate considering the rocky angular structure of my subject. I started with a red canvas as there has been so much red-brown in the desert scene.  
Mt Ruapehu - acrylic on canvas

2 comments:

Liz said...

I like them both but if I had to pick one, I'd take the water-colour! What a lovely idea to have variations on the one theme.

Elizabeth said...

Yes Liz, watercolours have a charm of their own don't they? I loved it too which was why I painted the acrylic painting and now I like it best because of the rich tussock colours. At some times of the year the purple heather is flowering as well and that is a wonderful combination with the yellow-red tussock.