An oil painting by Ada Fagan:

The real place:

This scene lies in the upper section of the Drakensburg mountain range in Natal, South Africa.

It used to be one of my favourite places to be. It felt like a wonder land. You could almost hear the music as the breeze brushed through your hair and went on to create waves through the grassy rolling foothills.

But sadly now, it’s a place littered by rubbish and small shanty towns!

When and how I painted it:

I painted it many years ago on Masonite board.

Preparation: First, sand down the board with sandpaper, to create a textured surface. Then paint it with warm liquid rabbit glue.

When that’s dry, gently sand its hairy surface, and paint it with titanium white. Thin down the white paint a little, so it’s easy to spread, with only genuine turps. Do not include linseed oil in the medium at this stage.

Composing the composition:

With a small thin brush do a simple uncomplicated synopsis of the main shapes. Use turps as you medium.
Like the general outline of the mountain range, slopes of the hills, basic shapes of the rocks. This helps you to assess the positions of the elements and the spaces for the sky, water, etc.
After that, fill in the basic colours of the shapes and spaces, with a wash of colour according to the objects general colour. Don’t worry about been neat.

When that is dry:

Go back and fill in the scene, work first with the sky, then the misty mountains, then rolling hills, working down to the foreground.
With each following layer of paint, add a little more linseed oil to the turps medium mixture. This is what they call ‘working from thin to fat’.
Leave the final adjustments and details, till the last stage or session of painting.