One day I woke up early ready to send Cynthia to town. I looked out of my window and what a lovely view! I saw a slightly hazy blue sky casting a misty silhouette over the Seletar Reservoir. The urge of wanting to paint was overwhelming. But first I must send Cynthia off.
(Click here or the thumbnail to view a larger image.)
On the way back, I got more and more excited. Clouds of fluffy shape floated above me waiting to be painted. Once I reached home, I wasted no time and set up my humble painting studio in my living room. Using my window frame as the view-finder, sketching exercise was a whole lot easier. In retrospect, I shall sketch the clouds the last and use a colour other than light blue. By the time I finished my sketching, the clouds have already moved and formed into somewhat different shapes. Oh, one more thing. Windy days post extra challenge to painting clouds as well.
It is so true that always paint from life. I saw so many different shades of blue from the sky and so many different shades of green from the trees. I took a picture right after I finished with the painting and the photo just does not do what the nature offers justice (click here to view the photo).
My buddy Tong Kiat thinks that the cloud on the top-right-hand corner looks more real (does he mean that the rest of the cloud …). Cynthia thinks that the cloud looks like a horse (hmmm). And my sister Lora told me that one morning she stared at the painting and saw the clouds moving. Hope you like it as much as I do. To tell you the truth, beautiful clouds aside, my proudest achievement is that tiny chimney and the tanker from a far distance. I was tempted not to put the tanker into my painting. It is the smallest subject that requires the highest concentration.
Click here for my oil painting “gallery”.
9 replies on “My 3rd Oil Painting – Seletar Reservoir Under A Cloudy Blue Sky (2007)”
Go go go! From one of the Google ads on your site. Go make some money now!
Ha ha ha … not there yet! Perhaps 10 years later when I am much better. Now all the artie links start to appear in my site …
wilf, it’s VERY NICE!
honestly, the first thing that came to my mind was “wow!”
Ah … thanks G. It is definitely some sort of experiment to me because I am always fascinated by clouds in the sky. Hopefully with more practice, the clouds will look more like clouds.
The other day, I was thinking if I could just paint a picture full of clouds but that would have been a bit boring. Then I saw a plane flew across the sky (yes, I stare at the sky a lot these days observing the different shades of blue and white). Now that could be an interesting subject. Except I don’t think my paint brush is fast enough to capture that!
I just looked at the painting again and the bottom cloud looks like the head and beak of a bird looking towards the left.
wow…. nice painting~! Got improvement wor…. not bad not bad! jia you
Lani – Thanks! Yia You and I shall! Hopefully in 10 years’ time …
Mark – You know what? I began to see that shortly after I have completed the painting. I swear that was not the intend. I didn’t want to put it into the blog and see if some others see the same thing as I do.
haha… brother, I still remember how you teased me back when I made such a ‘high’ praise on your drawing….
Sis: Bro, congratulations on your drawing~! It’s wonderful that I really saw the clouds moving in ‘some’ way in this morning!
Bro: Sis, it’s only because you don’t have sufficient sleep….
Sis: ……………………….
hahaha… anyway, to tell you the truth, among the four oil-paintings that you have, I love this one the most~! On one hand, I always like clouds and you did paint them nicely. On the other hand, I like the depth of your picture. I also like to draw (though I can’t… haha… ) and I know the difficulty…. it’s really not easy…. so, I must say, you REALLY have the talent~! I don’t think you need to wait for 10 years, …… if you are determined to do so!!! =D
You know what sis? I managed to dig up your previous blog on your painting (click here) and it does look really good too. What medium did you use and why didn’t you continue painting? I think you should.