Looking for more visual material, in the endeavour to create two oil paintings of Mount Taranaki the family had requested.

 

Getting you up to date:

As I had said before, we had bought oil paints when we were down in Palmerston North, because we couldn’t bring any over in the plane due to flying regulations. 

Up till now I had prepared the canvases with raw sienna undercoats. The reason for using raw sienna is because it’s a quick drying undercoat. And a thin wash of raw sienna on a white canvas, has the tendency to radiate up through the topcoats like the sun shining on a sunny day, especially, if you have missed a few spots in between your brushstrokes. 

• For example, here is an oil painting by Claude Monet. See how he used raw sienna as an undercoat and with his topcoats too. And also take note, how his blues and olive greens analogously complement the earthy yellow. I find this painting of his very inspiring. 

With the undercoat now dry on my two canvases and ready for the topcoats and composition, we needed to get more info on Mount Taranaki. Why? Because… 

• I love painting atmospheric conditions and Taranaki a very dramatic mountain, with the weather conditions affecting it hour by hour! Even minute by minute! So, it was important I got a better understanding of its moods, if I was going to capture and paint its ever changing colour tones and tints. 
• Also the family were accustomed to the mountain and were hoping for particular angles of the mountain’s profile. So this involved getting closer to get an accurate outline of its shape, and how the snowcap lay in the folds on its hillsides, etc. 

So off we went. 

Our search for a perfect profile composition of Taranaki didn’t happen in one day. One day driving around the mountain from the south, then viewing it from the east, and then checking it out from the west coastal regions. 

Each day was an exciting adventure, going through farmlands, different towns and down country lanes, winding this way and that way. Up and dale we went, stopping here and there to take photos. 

No matter where we were, each angle was breathtaking. With different foregrounds making it dramatic in its own right. Here is some of the footage we took. 

Cattle Tunnels:

In one of the photos you will notice a white wooden `fence’ jutting out towards the tarmac of the road. What it is really is, is a protection barrier bordering a tunnel that goes under the road at that point.  

You see… farmers who have land both sides of the road want their cattle to pass safely from one grazing area to other without been hit by traffic. Also, if the cows need to be herded back for milking and the milking parlour is on the other side of the road. And of cause this is a safer method for driving along roads, especially when the weather is misty and visibility is bad. 

Also notice:

The neat hedges that border the farms different fields and grazing paddocks! You see this all over North Island of New Zealand. It always amazes me how neat they are and no matter how tall they are too. 

And how lush and green New Zealand is too! It seems the rainy weather stops from Christmas day and as the summer weather moves on, sadly the grass gets drier and golden in colour.