New Copy, Day One, "Palmer River" by Edward Mitchell Bannister

For my current copy, I've chosen "Palmer River", a landscape by the American painter Edward Mitchell Bannister. Here is what the National Gallery's website has to say about this painting: 

"The Palmer River flows from Massachusetts into Rhode Island. Bannister’s depiction reflects his admiration for French landscape artists, but it is also a study of weather. In the foreground, the shoreline is sprinkled with wildflowers. Over the calm waters of the river, a band of clouds dips low, heavy with moisture.

Bannister first made his living as a barber after being denied access to formal artistic training because of his race. Early portrait commissions from prominent members of the Black community in Boston launched his career. Following the Civil War — during which he was deeply involved in antislavery activities — he moved to Providence, Rhode Island, and turned his attention to landscape painting."

I was not familiar with Bannister before I chose this painting to copy. I chose it because I've been painting  a lot of plein-air lansdcapes recently, and I think that copying a master painting can only help me in my pursuit of painting outdoors and capturing the scenery, weather, and light. I was particularly drawn to the clouds - it will be wonderful to paint clouds that stay still! I look forward to working on this copy over the next several weeks. The original measures 24 1/4 × 34 1/8 in., and my copy measures 22 x 31 in.

I started by spending a very long time getting all the elements of the composition drawn onto the canvas with an outline in paint, erasing with solvent when it needed correcting. I didn't grid the canvas out beforehand, mainly because I've been too busy to do anything but get the canvas stretched and gessoed, so I just measured and remeasured, sighting along my outstretched arm, until I was satisfied that it was good enough. I forgot to take a picture of it before I started adding color.

Here is my copy at the end of Day 1. I've covered the entire canvas with paint and have everything blocked in with paint. Next time I will go over everything again. I'm excited about this copy, because it's just the type of scene that I would choose to paint from real life. And did I mention before, the clouds stay still? Hopefully this will give me the tools to paint clouds when I'm out there!

Click the images for a larger view