"Torrington Teal" & Mother Nature

"Torrington Teal", at 30 x 40 inches is the largest canvas I have painted (so far!). It is a beautiful commissioned work, in which Mother Nature played two roles.

Firstly, she created a colour match challenge for me. This painting was commissioned for the entrance way of an elegant home. Lots of light, natural stone, and muted, calming neutral tones. The flooring in the entrance is a type of flagstone that I believe is called Bluestone. In this particular case, it is more of a greenish-teal, if you can image that in stone. Mama Nature was having a bright & colourful day when that was "created". 

Finding & creating paint colours to compliment the teal Bluestone was a challenge, but a good one. I was able to create a solid matching paint colour by mixing sage grey with light blue grey, burnt umber (brown), and a forest-y green. The accent colour is a bright teal, and I created this by mixing a metallic Christmas green with metallic ice blue. Nothing like good old trial & error. In the end I think I used 7 different colours in the painting and all were either grey or blue based. 

The other role Mother Nature played in the creation of this piece is that most Canadian of things - the weather. Since the canvas is larger than my workbench, I had to paint in my garage. So I needed a stretch of weather that wasn't too hot, too cold, or too humid. In late August/early September. In Southern Ontario. Okay, okay. Stop laughing. But I did get a decent few days in early September, and the creation went off without a hitch. After a full week of checking on it and banning everyone from opening the garage door, it dried perfectly, and I couldn’t be more pleased!

It will come back in a month to be varnished, and I will have final photos then, but for now here are some detailed photos.