I took the inspiration photo for The Dundas Valley’s Gold Forest oil painting back in October 2020. It’s been my phone background ever since, but for some reason, I knew I wasn’t ready to paint it then.
In some ways, I feel this painting is a companion piece to Dundas Valley Conservation Trail at Dusk, painted in 2021.
In 2021, I was recovering from my own personal tragedy of losing my mother who died in 2020. No one was a bigger supporter of my artistic passions than my Mom, and I made a conscious effort to channel that love and support into my work at that time. I also happened to meet my now husband around the same time. So to me, that painting was about optimism for the future and coming out of a dark time.
2023 arrived and I was in a very different place. The timing just felt right to tackle this reference photo. I knew I wanted to make the painting large to engulf the viewer.
I wanted to embody feelings of tranquillity, abundance and warmth in this painting.
Underpainting
I almost always start by toning my canvas and completing a burnt sienna underpainting. I don’t particularly enjoy painting on a stark white canvas. I’m not sure if it’s intimidating, or if it’s because it’s more difficult to plot values and saturation, but doing a light wash of burnt sienna first really helps me jump-start the process.
I don’t follow my reference photo exactly. I like to make changes depending on how I want to direct the viewer’s eye movements.
Creating depth in the painting
I started with painting the tree trunks. The further a tree away is the lighter it gets, and when I got to the background I enjoyed making my tree trunks a violet colour to create some atmospheric depth.
In the foreground I featured the shadows on the hills by emphasizing my brushwork. I wanted to show the directionality of the hills and the sweeping movements it creates. As we move more into the background I use less contrast and simplify the colour pallet.
Colour and stylistic choices
My goal is not to create a realistic representation of the source image. I always try to create work to show how I see landscapes by emphasizing specific details that capture my imagination and attention.
A warm yellow, or gold, is the predominant colour in this painting. I feel it gives this landscape the richness and warmth I wanted to achieve. For this reason, I purposefully abstained from pulling in more of those greens that can be visible in the source image.
Reflections on the finished painting
As I mentioned at the beginning of this blog post, this painting is very much a companion or response to my Dundas Valley Conservation Trail at Dusk, painted in 2021 centred around feelings of optimism and moving through a dark time. Call it cosmic timing, but shortly after I started the underpainting of this painting my husband and I learned I was pregnant with our first child. For me, this painting really serves as a representation of the balance and joy I feel at this point in my life.
I truly hope that when others see this painting they feel inspired and happy. Autumn is such a beautiful time in Ontario, but we only get to experience these fall colours for a few short weeks. I find it wonderful how art has the ability to capture and hold space for these moments.
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