A Blog About Oil Painting

Charcoal Studies - Working Through Ideas Part I

by Simon Bland / Apr 12, 2016

Charcoal Sketches on paper (full sheet). 2016 Before investing a lot of time, effort and materials in a painting, I find it's always helpful to first work though my idea on paper. Simple studies like these help me to test out the compositions and make sure they have a good chance of working. I can m...

Light in the Sky - a study

by Simon Bland / Mar 8, 2016

Light in the Sky - study. 9x12, oil on linen panel. 2016. This is a study that I painted as a way to explore a different take on representing light in the sky. I based it on some plein air sketches. Having painted landscapes in Virginia for so long, I've become used to working with the hierarchy of ...

Kid Stuff

by Simon Bland / Jan 21, 2016

Sea Study. 5x7, oil and cold wax medium on linen panel 2016 When I was 5 or 6 I went through a period of painting nothing but boats on the ocean, usually with a small island thrown in for good measure. I'm not sure why I felt this was such a compelling subject, but I suspect that it had something to...

Some Forgotten Studies

by Simon Bland / Jan 16, 2016

In my studio I have a stack of sketches and studies. It's essentially a pile of doodles and ideas, things that I've hung on to in the anticipation that they can eventually be turned into real paintings, or things that might be helpful as I work on something further down the line. I created these stu...

Clam Bay Studies

by Simon Bland / Jan 10, 2016

Clam Bay Study. 8x10, oil on linen panel. 2016 This small study was a way to experiment with a different approach to the blue-gray colors of the seascape. Using a palette of black, alizarin and yellow ochre, I proved to myself that it's possible to paint the coastline without using a blue. &nbs...

Charcoal Study for New Horse Portrait

by Simon Bland / Aug 29, 2015

Charcoal Study for New Horse Portrait. approx 20x16. 2015 While I usually do these value designs as small 5x7 pencil sketches, when I’m working on a larger portrait I will often take a full sheet of paper and work out the design in charcoal. It helps to give a feel for the scale of what I'm ab...