I am now working on the second painting in the series Himalayan Clouds. Oil paints, similar to watercolors, consist of paints that have different qualities; transparent, sedimentary and opaque/staining.
In this painting I am hoping to take advantage of some of the more transparent oils; cobalt blue, aureolin and viridian in combination with other colors such as French Ultramarine (sedimentary), Violet, Titanium White and Zinc White, to capture a beautiful sky transition from a light blue-green on the right across to a dark blue-violet sky on the left. The clouds also reflect the light source in the right hand sky transitioning to dark purple on the left hand side of the painting. Here is the thumbnail study, no more than an inch and a half across, rendered with Caran D'Ache aquarelle pencils.



The actual painting is 2 ft high by 3 ft wide and I started, as is my style, with very thin winsor and newton oil paints, using various sized ivory filbert brushes (from Rosemary & Co. in the UK) with a lot of turpentine in the mix. Here is some of the underpainting:

As I recently posted on my Facebook page I bought a multi-angled studio easel from Himalayan Fine Art in Mumbai. This wonderful addition to my studio has allowed me to start working in oils on larger canvases. The easel will accommodate up to 7 foot canvases.
The best part of this acquisition is that I have now started on a series of 2X3 foot canvases of Himalayan cloud scenes. I bought some semi-prepped linen canvas and stretcher bars and have stretched my own canvases and coated them with 2-3 layers of acrylic gesso.
The progress of the first painting is depicted in the following photos:




Oh yah, and here is the multi-angle easel.