Rimmed in Rust

Rimmed in Rust

So here, finally, is the finished painting of the McCormick-Deering tractor I discussed in my last post. It's currently on display in Harrisonburg, Va, at VMRC as part of the Shenandoah Valley Watercolor Society Members Exhibition.

I had really liked this painting . . . until I saw it in on display in the show. Now I think it's too small. It's not quite 10x10, and in that long gallery with its high ceilings, it felt weak. I had to search to find it, in fact.

So, I think my solution will be to do a larger version during the winter. I like the idea, the composition, the colors...but I think it's got to be larger.

Aside from the size issues, there are many things that I still like about this painting, particularly the textures. In real life, this tractor is a rough beast, with layers and layers of paint covering its heavy frame.

I think I've accentuated those textures here. I used wet-into-wet techniques on the wheel, with pigments bleeding into one another to create the age spots and dominant highlight. For the gray-blue tractor body, there are many careful layers of paint, with lots of little dots in selected areas. I put my fine-pointed Loew-Cornell series 7020 brushes to good use on this painting.