Richard Chamerski Painting Process

Richard Chamerski Step By Step Painting Process

Richard Chamerski is one of Australia’s leading landscape painters in the Heidelberg School style of Australian Impressionism. A professional artist for four decades Richard is also a popular workshop teacher.

A few years ago Learn To Paint Academy founder Rod Moore filmed Richard and documented his painting process for a DVD titled “From Plein Air To Studio Painting”. In this article we break down the painting process using images from the DVD to detail Richard Chamerski painting process.

Richard starts off on location to capture a plein air study of the subject. As you can see above he is using a small pochade box which is lightweight and easy to set up on location. He starts the study with a small 8″ x 10″ panel which he has toned with a warm tone prior to painting.

As this is just a study to capture the overall impression of the subject he is not working towards a finished painting here. Notice how he has started by blocking in the dark tones first, and is now adding in the sky colour.

The dark tones around the old shack are strengthened and he starts to build up depth by bringing the trees closest to the cottage forward. He does this by using darker values and warmer tones.

The small study is developed to a point where Richard feels confident he has enough information to go by back in the studio. He also takes photo references to use along with the plein air study.

Now back in the studio, and working on larger canvas tapped to a board, Richard starts out first with a pencil sketch. Then as you can see in the above photo he blocks in his dark tones following the same process he used with the plein air study. This is when Richard will start to develop his values structure which underpin the painting.

He continues to work on the block in. Notice how thin he uses the paint in this early stage. Once the dark tones of the trees and mountains are painted in he switches to the lighter tones of the sky and foreground. Notice also the warm tone in the foreground.

After strengthening the distant row of trees with the darker tones he now starts to establish the mid tones adding a warmer green to the trees. This starts to indicate a light source and direction in the painting.

Details around the old cottage are added in. Not too much though. Richard advises us to use just enough detail to indicate the subject without over working it.

Texture and details then are added to the foreground grasses. Richard has used a large dark shadow across the foreground so that the eye has to step into the painting. The details are added using a large flat brush so he doesn’t get bogged down in trying to paint every blade of grass.

Final finishing touches are added in the forms of tree branches and twigs. These are kept to a minimum though so they don’t detract from the overall impact of the painting.

Richard Chamerksi Painting Course Now Available

Up until now the only way to get to learn from Richard Chamerski was too attend one of his workshops or get your hands on one of his DVD’s.

Today though we are excited to announce the DVD is now available in the form on an online course at the Learn To Paint Academy.

For a limited time you can take advantage of an early bird discount and save on the course.

Click Here To Save 50% on Richard Chamerski Course

Richard is a terrific art teacher who has years of experience as a professional artist for you to learn from. We highly recommend joining his online course and learning his approach of painting landscapes.