Oil Painting lesson with Gregory Smith - Day 1

After returning from a painting trip to Beechworth, I went straight to Greg's studio.

He told me to start by painting a background, and did some demo for me, which I found fascinating.
He first put Viridian, then Cad Red and other colours to create neutral brown, making a point that it's not a colour that counts, it's a tone, i.e., as long as a tone is right, a painting will never fail.

Then I put Viridian all over the place and tried to put Cad Red and other colours like he did. However, there was too much Viridian and I was struggling to get rid of its strength.
Greg was watching this, and told me that somehow he liked its colour, so we decided to leave it as it is!

I spent the rest of the session trying to get a cat right. It was really a big challenge. With Greg's timely suggestions, I think I'm getting there.

I'm looking forward to next session.

Work in progress. 

Oil on panel. 16 x 20 in.