Ala Prima Vineyard

The owners of both galleries I'm showing with currently are asking me to do some new vineyard paintings for them. So I started this one yesterday while I decide on the photo I want to use for reference to paint the background of the portrait of Bob P. I took the photo I'm using to do this one about 15 years ago at Kenwood Vineyards in the Valley of the Moon. I'm doing it Ala Prima with no toning or underpainting on the white gesso ground. This is a fast technique working wet into wet as I would if I were painting en plein air. Except there is a lot more time to make compositional and color decisions working with reference that you can pick from and whose light doesn't keep changing. This is a small canvas (12" x 18") that I made on a stretcher frame that I built to my own specifications. I like more space between the canvas and the wood of the stretcher, so I build my own. More later... Aloha, T