Ground Cover and Elk

   The ground cover was another complicated section of this painting. Rather than be bound by my reference photos, I let them act as guides, suggestions, for the approach. The ground should be detailed enough that your eyes will see vegetation yet not pull your focus with tight plant renderings. It's a delicate balance.

 

You can see I have started on the elk.

 

 

 

 

More Trees

 Below you can see the steps I took in finishing the redwoods.

 

 

And the trees

 

 

Now it's time to work on the close-up trees. The background should complement the these trees and not pull focus from them.

 

One of the adjustments I made from the previous post is to lighten the blue sky to the right of the right most tree. 

 

 

 

 

Background sections painted

 Once the closer trees are painted I'll revisit the sectioned background to see if there are any adjustments needed.

 

As I said at the beginning of the posts on this painting, it's complicated. But, breaking it down in sections helped me to see the next step rather than get lost in the forest.

 

 

The backlit section

 This most middle section establishes the feeling of backlighting. Now that the other sections are painted (though I always leave room for tweaking) I am playing with distance, color, and an almost washed out look from the sun.

 

 

 

More background

 

My planned order for painting the sections was left to right. 

Eh. Decided to wait on the most middle one and tackle the right side of the painting next.

I'm still feeling a bit overwhelmed and want to work on a more simple section before that middle section. 

 

The one brush method seems to be working well as it is keeping the painting looser. A too tight background will bring the image closer when it should recede.

 

 

 

 

 

  

It's Complicated

 I was stumped.

 

The concept seemed sound. The drawing went well, though it took a long time.

The board was on my easel but I didn't know where to start. My usual top down, background to foreground seemed too daunting with this piece.

 

Ah, simplify. Not the painting, but the approach.

I would break it down in to sections, broken by the towering trees.

 

Here is the start.

 

 

 For this whole section I used one brush, a flat angled brush larger than I usually use. The background has a softer feel which I like.

 

 

 

And the Winner Is.....

 Touching.

 My painting of two leopards has won the

Best Realism Award 

at the National Oil & Acrylic Painters Society 

2026 Best of America Show 

held in Sheridan WY at Ballards Fine Art Gallery September 1 - 26. 

 

 I was very excited to hear the news. In addition to the recognition it was a further surprise to hear the award comes with two generous sponsors.

 

General Pencil has donated a cash award.

www.GeneralPencil.com

Check out their wide array of products. They have how-to books, sketching kits, master soap (which I use every day to clean my oil paint brushes), colored pencils, pencil sharpeners, and of course, a wide selection of premium pencils.

Thank you General Pencil for your cash award.

 

M. Graham donated paints. EIGHTEEN premium oil paints!

 https://mgraham.com/

(Note: I used their titanium white sunflower oil in the winning painting, and in all my paintings.)

Rather than all the usual "suspects," Judy at M. Graham had curated a unique selection for my award. What a thrill to try some new paints, some of which I had never heard of. Azo green, dioxazine purple, and nickel azo yellow. I am also particularly interested to try their cerulean blue and ultramarine blue and compare them to my Rembrandt blues.

Thank you M. Graham for your exciting award. 

 

 

 

 

 

Painting Finished

 

Yellow-Headed Blackbird - Williams Lake

16.5" x 10"

Original Oil by Linda Besse 

 

 

 

Cattails

 

 

Cattails can be used as a handy pointing device. The darkest one is pointing toward the breast of the yellow-headed blackbird. I was careful with its placement. Too close and one could imagine it piercing the bird. Too far away and the pointing would be lost.

 

 

 

A new painting

 During the summer I work on commissions. I find it a good time before I start painting for my winter shows.

 

Here is the start of one.

  Yellow-headed blackbirds are one of the more striking birds we have here in the Pacific Northwest. It is always a treat to see them around our lakes and streams during the nesting season.

 

  This may look like a simple composition. In many ways it is. A loose background, a hint of near-ish cattails and grasses in the lower left, and the foreground grasses and cattails.

  However, it is the placement of each cattail and grass blade which is important. Making this a vertical painting is helping to further the story of the long cattails and also illustrates a common position the yellow-headed blackbird takes when singing.

 

 

 

 

 

Finished - Painting #1000

 Yes! My 1000th painting is finished. 

This post is a continuation of the post on May 8, 2026. I needed the underpainting of the foreground grasses to dry before I could add the grasses in sunlight. In the meantime I completed the five paintings for my 2026 Sea, Sand, and Shore Collection at the Louisa Gould Gallery on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

 

Here is painting #1000.

 

 

Touching

Original oil by Linda Besse

24" X 36" 

 

 

 

 

Finished

 

Old Friends

Original Oil by Linda Besse

32" X 44"  

 

 

 

Furled Sails

 

It's amazing how much time it takes to paint furled sails. One would think since it is a much smaller area than an open sail it'd be a breeze. But, to make the wrapped sail feel like cloth takes a lot of care to build the creases caused by the ropes and ties around the sail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boat Hulls

 

First I painted the buoys. The two matching ones didn't have much to them, but the round ones took some extra time with the stripe and reflection.

 

Next up were the hulls. I started on the water line (a deep cranberry) then moved to the white hulls.

A key to making this painting work is not only painting reflections of the boats in the water but also creating reflections of moving water on the boats. 

 

Much of this upward reflection is trial and error as I play around with lighter streaks, blending, darkening, more light streaks, etc. The idea is to make the reflection present but not a focal point. At the same time I worked on the reflections in the water, softening them and blending in warmer greens.

 

I've been looking forward to painting the wood of these boats. It was the wood and timeless nature of the boats which sparked the concept of the painting.

 

 

 

Water

 

At this point the boat reflections are just roughed in. I'll be able to gauge their look better once the hull of the boats is painted.

 

 

 

 

What happened to all the boats?

 As you can see in my previous post one of my reference photos shows the masts of a lot of boats in the harbor.

My painting will not.

 

It's not that I can't paint 30 boats, but they aren't part of the story I want to tell. A jumble of boats from different boat building eras says more about the harbor than about the boats.

 

There were three wooden boats which grabbed my attention and they are my subjects.

 

Painting Water 

Many painters don't list painting water as one of their favorite aspects of painting. I find it not only one of the most challenging elements but also one of the most satisfying. 

 

My first step is to identify what type of water it is, besides being wet.

Is it calm? reflective? fresh or salty?

Is the day windy, slight breeze, or dead calm?

What color is the sky?

 

In this piece I have saltwater, a slight breeze, a light cloudy sky, and a good deal of distance between the horizon to the most foreground section of water. All of this comes in to play.

 

 

 

 

 To capture the distance, the color of the water has to change from the far distance (cool) to the foreground (warmer and more saturated.) 

With the slight breeze the "ripples" will go from barely anything to larger wavy water. The breeze will also mean I do not have detailed reflections of the boats but rather broken less defined shadows.

 

The photo above shows how I am building this water. Below the breakwater and above the hull of the background boat the water is "filled in." Below that I am leaving gaps in the paint and will come back in with additional colors after this blocking is done. 

Note: Just below the breakwater on the right side of the painting I am leaving the water lighter as a subtle nod to the lighter clouds above it. 

 

This is a big board, 32" x 44", so there are a lot of brushstrokes to cover it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breakwater

The camera is no substitute for a painter's eye.

 

This breakwater is a perfect example.

 

photo reference

  Even if I had every foot of the breakwater visible I do not want to paint it that dark. Colors like that create a strong focal element which draws one's eye and decreases the depth of the painting.

 

That leaves two issues to resolve: building a breakwater for which there is limited information and coming up with colors which read as dark but aren't.

 

For the "building the breakwater" I know the rocks are not rounded but rather angular.

For the colors I mix lighter colors, leaning toward the cool end of the scale, but also include some browns for the weathering rocks.

 

 

 

 painting

 

The breakwater in my painting looks incredibly light compared to the one in the photo at the top of the post. I may darken some areas after the rest of the painting is completed, but the goal is to suggest a breakwater and not chop up the painting with a harsh dividing line.

 

 

 

 

Making it up

 There are times when photo reference can aid in paintings and times when it is less than helpful.

 

This is one of those times. Unless I am purposely focused on a uniquely beautiful sky, in many of my reference photos the sky is unremarkable or just dull. While few paintings require a stunning sunrise or sunset, an interesting sky can be an important feature in a piece.

 

 

This is the upper part of one of my reference photos for my current painting.

The sky is "eh."

 

 

Fortunately, this is a place I have spent many days. When I refer to "making it up" that presumes a knowledge of the subject and an inherent perception of what could be possible if you had the "perfect" reference.

 

Current upper part of the painting. (quick phone photo)

 

The painting's setting is in Vineyard Haven harbor on the island of Martha's Vineyard. I have often watched banks of clouds develop over Cape Cod (which is the land in the background.)

 

I've used a technique I often employ for skies. As you've seen from my other paintings, once my drawing is complete, I use a light yellow ochre turpentine wash over the entire painting. This not only "locks" in my pencil drawing but also adds warmth to the white gessoed board. (Since I knew I would be winging it for the sky I didn't draw anything above the horizon land line.)

 

When I start painting the sky I mix several colors on my palette. Between the upper most color of the sky and the warmer color below it I left a small gap. With a very soft blending brush I blended most of the two colors together but left gaps where the wash underneath is visible or shows through the thinner layer of paint.

 

As I worked my way down the painting I kept in mind how clouds can form in this coastal area. After blocking in most of the colors (making sure the uppermost cool color appeared in long streaks in the warmer bank of clouds) it was time to use the blending brush again to soften any rough edges.

 

I wanted the clouds to be more interesting than any of my reference photos for this day but didn't want them to take center stage in the painting. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finished

 

Buoyant

18" X 11"

Original oil by Linda Besse