Green Backhoe at Duxbury Cranberry Bog

One of my favorite spots for painting is on a stretch of Route 14 in Duxbury, MA at Temple Street next to a small cranberry bog.   This is the same location painted in another one of my paintings, "Pumphouse and Trailer."  A large, aqua backhoe appeared alongside the oxide red shed back in the spring.   I had been thinking that this old relic would make a nice, rustic painting subject.  I'm not sure this piece of equipment has even moved in the past seven months, but perhaps with the impending cranberry harvest, it will see some action.  

Since it is October, the tall summer grasses are leaning over and are bleached out.   In some areas the clover grasses look like they are having a rebirth due to the cool, damp autumn air, the only growth that looks true green.   Even the copse of trees beyond the backhoe and shed have a hint of rusty colored needles as does the ground beneath.   



Rt 14 Duxbury - Bog Backhoe Stage One

My canvas had been the beginnings of a seascape as can be seen in the Stage One Photo.   I blocked in the dark shadows of the distant trees and the backhoe.   Having painted many "red" barns and sheds, I know that they are really never red.   For this shed the sunlit red plane was a warm pink, made from cadmium red, naples yellow and some titanium white.   The shed plane in shadow was a alizarin, cobalt blue shade, with a darker version of that same hue just under the roofline.

Once I sketched in the two main subjects, the shed and the backhoe, I wasn't satisfied that the composition was unified.   I decided to play up the trunks of the trees in the distance between the subjects as a way of connecting them.   I feel like it made it better, but I wonder what an objective observer would think.

The small bog canal enters the scene on the left and winds back around the shed.   It was completely covered with pea green algae, which I didn't like, so I made it blue - initially.   The blue looked wrong and I don't know if it was because I knew it was made up, or if it was the wrong blue, but I decided to mix up some algae green and have it cling to the shorelines.



Bog Backhoe and Shed

The most fun for me as a painter is applying the last small touches on a painting.   For this painting, there were about four things I did at the end on the dry painting.  It amounts to punching up (down?) the darkest and lightest spots.   In applying these finishing touches, I try to do it in one stroke to give it a loose look

1) Retouched the darkest darks under the shed and backhoe.
2) Used my "sideways" bristle brush dipped in some naples yellow (and in some places cad red) to touch on the random dried out grasses. This softens the mid-distance greens too.
3) Mixed a cool white with just a tinge of cobalt to brighten the shed trim that was sunlit
4) Used a lemony (cool) yellow to lighten the sunlit side of the backhoe.