A subject that i have wanted to paint for some time has been the Augustana Lutheran Church in rural Detroit Lakes, MN. The church sits atop a hill that overlooks the lake that my aunt and uncle own land on, and I have been itching to paint the church for years.
I began with several pencil sketches to get familiar with the subject and started with a small (8×10) study in oil. I quickly rubbed in a value sketch in burnt umber.
Next i mixed some dark greens with ivory black and yellow ochre, and layed in some cobalt blue for the local sky color.
I then built up heavy impasto (not visible in the photos) on the area of the church and the field directly in front of it.
I wasn’t happy with the angles on the hay bales on the left so I scraped that off and also cut off the bottom few inches of the canvas.
After letting this paint layer dry I added more impasto on the church and added some venetian red in the shadow areas of the trees for visual interest. I then built a shadow-box type frame with walnut to house the painting. It was hung in the foyer of same church.