Paint Sunshine to Brighten Your Day

Oh, Happy Day
Oil on Canvas Panel
16 x 20 in/40.6 x 50.8 cm
Copyright Byrne Smith 2015

I decided to brighten my day by painting some sunshine in  a sunny landscape. As I mentioned a few blogs ago, the weather does affect what I paint, and I needed some sunshine going into late winter.

I like painting vistas like this one. It's got all the things you need for a summer day: sunshine, green grass, shade, and distant hills to provide respite from the heat.

I used my trusty water-mixable oils for this one, with my palette of ultramarine blue, cad yellow light, cad red light, pthalo green/blue shade (a touch in the sky), burnt sienna (a touch in the clouds), yellow ochre, alizarin crimson, and, of course, titanium white.

You know how to paint sunshine, right? It's an illusion (like smoke and mirrors), and it's all done with shadows. I use the red/green combo for shadows, either burnt sienna and/or alizarin crimson with pthalo green, Remember, the darker the shadows, the brighter the sunshine.

I hope this brightens your day, too, if you're getting a little tired of winter.

Cheers.