Arts, Music, and Recreation Hobbies & Activities Painting a Series Share Flipboard Email Print Hobbies & Activities Painting Lessons & Tutorials Learn to Paint Techniques Famous Painters Painting Supplies Hiking Paddling Fishing Sailing & Boating Scuba Diving Playing Guitar Playing Piano Drawing & Sketching Collecting Gambling Card Games Other Hobbies View More by Marion Boddy-Evans Updated March 18, 2017 01 of 09 Heat Series Painting: The Series Begins Photo © Marion Boddy-Evans Painting a series of similar or related paintings doesnt mean youve run out of ideas (or, worse, youve only ever had one idea!). Rather, painting a series is a way of pursuing an idea, of pushing it to see how far itll go, of trying out variations to see where youll end up.Ive found with this series of painting Ive called Heat that one painting leads to another, and to another. The painting shown here I regard as the first of the series of paintings. But the painting Id done immediately before led to this one, and without it I would never have had any of my Heat paintings.The paintings are all acrylic on canvas and the main colours used are cadmium red, cadmium orange, cadmium yellow, golden ochre, titanium buff, and titanium white.(Follow the development of this painting in this step-by-step painting demo.) 02 of 09 Heat Series Painting: The Original Photo © Marion Boddy-Evans This is the painting that led to the others in my Heat series. I keep it on my studio wall not because I think its a wonderful painting, but because it taught me so much and has led to paintings Im particularly pleased with.There are elements I like, such as the sun and the tree, and elements I would rework if I were working on this painting now, such blending the colours on the hill rather than having them as such distinctive bands. 03 of 09 Heat Series Painting: The Little Trees Photo © Marion Boddy-Evans Having done a vertical version, I now went back to horizontal canvas, but moved my point of view further away. I like the echo of shapes between the sun and the land, but the trees I just couldnt get working for me. I repainted them many times, eventually putting the canvas to one side. Though, Im still not entirely happy with them, I decided to declare the painting 'finished' as I wasnt convinced I ever would get them 'right' in my eyes. 04 of 09 Heat Series Painting: Up Close Photo © Marion Boddy-Evans This is the most abstract painting in the whole series (so far!). The intention is that you feel as if youd stepped up close to a tree in one of the other paintings. Its not my favourite in the series, but it is of a close friend of mine. 05 of 09 Heat Series Painting: No Kissing Photo © Marion Boddy-Evans When I first painted this, something just wasnt working in it for me, but I wasnt sure what. Then Alistair, my husband, pointed out that I had the sun and the landscape just touching -- or kissing -- and suggested they should rather overlap. I changed it and was so pleased with the result that some other kissing happened .(Take a look at the two versions of the painting...) 06 of 09 Heat Series Painting: A Commission Photo © Marion Boddy-Evans All the paintings Id done up to now were the same size, 250mm x 650mm. An acquaintance commissioned a larger version of one of the series, but wanted it twice the size of the original. She said her house was cheerful and bright and she had just the spot in her lounge for a larger version of the painting.I deliberately didnt look at the smaller painting when I did the larger, not wanting it to be an exact copy, though it would be very similar. The result: the branches of the tree came out quite different; the sun is larger and more blended, and the hill is larger. She was, Im pleased to say, delighted with the painting. 07 of 09 Heat Series Painting: Reversing the Background Photo © Marion Boddy-Evans The most significant change between this painting and the others in the series is that the dominant colours of the sky and land are reversed. Theres also no sun. The plant is a welwitschia, an ancient desert plant species that occurs in parts of Namibia. 08 of 09 Heat Series Painting: Adding Texture Photo © Marion Boddy-Evans In this painting in the series the major change is that I applied the paint for the tree with a knife, not a brush, so theres a lot more texture in the painting. Youll see that it retained the reversed colours from the previous painting in the series, with the sky being red and the land yellow. The colours in the sun have also been reversed from the suns in earlier paintings in the series. 09 of 09 Heat Series Painting: Group Photo © Marion Boddy-Evans These three paintings in the series were not intentionally painted as a group, but the person who has them has hung them closely together on her wall. I think they in fact work better as a group than individually. (Which led to more ideas and more thumbnails of paintings in the Heat series done as groups, not individual works.) Continue Reading