Oil Painting - Shadows Across a Mossy Trail

Here’s my latest oil painting of a trail I hike frequently here in Virginia. I was recently walking the trail late in the day and the shadows crossing the mossy trail made for a nice photo. I knew when I saw the light striped trail that I would have to paint it. The late afternoon sun put a nice glow on the bright green moss. I love beech trees because of the light bark with dark scars randomly scattered on the trunk. The photo reference for this painting was actually a much wider shot but I wanted to simplify the scene and focus on the mossy path and three particular beech trees.

Final Painting

Shadows on Moss

11”x14” Oil on Linen Panel

Block in

I used a thin mix of alizarin crimson and ultramarine blue to draw the scene and indicate the light and dark areas in the scene. I then put in the bright green moss. I dialed that back later but wanted to keep this painting colorful.

Adding background and details

I almost stopped here but decided to add more highlight to the edges of the trees and add more saturated color to patches of background trees. I also realized my three beech trees were without and branches showing which is pretty unrealistic. I added a variety of dark shadowed branches and light gray sunlit branches to finish the painting.

Reference photo

You can see from the reference photo that I had to crop quite a bit to get to a simpler scene with just three beech trees as the subject.

So that’s my first painting of 2022 and I hope you like it. Have a safe and happy 2022!