Through the Fog

This painting of the lionsgate bridge was a Christmas commission for a friend of mine. It measures 36" by 48" and was painted with acrylic paint. I actually enjoyed the process of making this painting which is surprising since I have had a love hate relationship with landscapes in the past.
Landscapes have never really been my thing but because my father paints landscapes my first painting was of a calendar photo of autumn trees. I hated it from the moment I started and I think my dad actually threw it out when I was done. I painted a portrait shortly after (it was so much better) which I count as my first painting.

 I painted this painting in very distinct steps and layers which meant I was finishing off sections as I went instead of working on everything at once. I started with the sky across the top of the canvas and then painted the mountains over that. I was very concerned that I would at some point ruin the blue wash I had worked on but luckily I managed to make it all the way through the painting process with only a few small glitches.

The fog was tricky. I didn't want it to look like snow or like I had forgotten to paint half of my canvas so I did some sponge painting of various colours to give it some depth and then smoothed it out with thin layers of white.

 The bridge was another tricky thing to do without messing up my previous layers. For a brief but stressful moment I thought I would be starting over but it all worked out in the end and I covered my small error with the trees across the front.

The pine trees were tedious but easy to do, although they looked like shadows till I fogged some of them out. The final touch was the red and yellow leaves of the largest tree which really made the difference between the foreground and all the layers behind it.
I am very pleased with how this painting turned out and happy to add it to the collection of 2 other landscapes I have painted. lol
Now I have time to get back to my other paintings that have been laying dormant for the past stressful month!