Extracto de cerro - Extract of mountains Print

This is what I see from my terrace, every day: this mountain. The canvas shows only a small part, the most uneven. The area is located in the pre-cordillera of the Chilean Andes, a 2000 meters above sea level. I live there, in the pampas which suffer a lot from drought. And it is by watching so often this part of the mountain that I came up with the desire of this canvas. This work is realistic, and even hyper-realistic, but conceived as an abstract work. I studied this composition as if I had to paint it in an approach of abstract expressionism. The framing, the distribution of the masses, the dynamism of the structural lines, and the choice of colors were chosen with this in mind (I hope one day to have the possibility of carrying out this work by eliminating the realistic dimension). I had several goals. First, play on the spectator's first vision, not to impose a hyper-realistic landscape on him right away, but a composition that would hold his attention (on this subject, I am interested in any feedback on your first impressions). Then, I wanted to live this meticulous process of realization, to know my own impressions. Given that this work took me 500 hours, we can say that I enjoyed it. Finally, I wanted to know if an abstract approach would benefit or harm the result. Be the judge. This work is painted with oil paint, on a frame of my manufacture, a cotton canvas prepared by hand with several layers of well sanded gesso. To work at ease, I need a canvas without relief, perfectly smooth. I used 3 main colors: a black made of a mixture of Burnt Umber and Prussian Blue (by forcing a little on Prussian Blue), a Burnt Umber and Sienna Natural. There is a very important work with white (Titanium White) and I added a few touches of Yellow Ocher, Red Ocher and Chrome Green. In summary a fairly simple palette. The drawing, very important, was executed following the progress of painting, a very precise drawing, but made freehand, more demanding on the details of the form than on their location.