Did you feel the gentle breeze blow a few leaves across the path? Do you hear the clacking of fighting tree limbs above you? Spirits dart from shadows to darker places as you walk. Hidden eyes are upon you. The graveyard is shifting as you pass through.
I’m currently working on a graveyard painting. My friend has commissioned me to paint a spooky Halloween-ish painting for her to hang in her home. I’ve been keeping her up to date with my progress with photos and she’s since told me that she plans to keep it up all year long.
That’s probably why we’re still such good friends after many years. Since high school to be exact. I totally get that. I too, have a spook fetish.
If you’ve followed along my blog or read through it much, you’ve probably picked up on that. I like to “ghost hunt”, I’m actually in a group and we all get together to investigate known hauntings or take field trips to spooky spots. I was going to attend such a place tomorrow called McPike Mansion in Alton Illinois (click to read a post about McPike), but unfortunately there has been a death in my husband’s family and the services are on the same day – kind of ironic, don’t you think?
Graveyard Shift…
Here are some progress photos of the graveyard painting. It’s not quite finished but getting there.
I’ve just blocked in the color. At first I was thinking a night sky, but to me dusk is so much more mysterious. I love the anticipation of night falling and what better place to be than in a graveyard for added suspense?
I deepened the intensity of the sky and added some dark clouds…
I’ve started adding colors in for the tree and forming its bark. I like the way it twists a bit. This anchors the painting.
Next came the mist like fog… who hasn’t passed a graveyard that was misty and had a little shiver run down your back? My good friend Kelly hates driving to my house at night because there is a nearby graveyard and she swears it’s always misty and foggy like this and it freaks her out. I, of course, love it.
I also added groves of trees in the distant fields to help give a sense of space.
What is a graveyard without gravestones? I’ve been to many graveyards in my time and these old ones with sunken graves and forgotten souls are among my favorite.
Adding more details… vines growing up my tree and leaves in the path along with wisps of weeds growing in between the headstones.
I’m getting ready to head to the studio to hopefully finish this painting up. I may add a crow, probably perched on a stone and maybe a branch poking down from the top… not sure on that yet.
Thanks for following along my spooky journey.
