Late in the Day

In this piece, warm colours and highlights in soft pinks, ochres and yellows celebrate the form of grasstrees and eucalypts. 'Late in the Day' was painted from memory, and seeks to recall something of the feeling of being in the bush when the long warm afternoon rays make the landscape glow.

This painting is part of a collection of works I have been making. The painting style is drawing-like and loose, it is about capturing a sense of the place the same way you would in a sketch. I begin with a thin quickly applied base coat of acrylic often blocked in in two or three colours. Once this dries I sketch in a composition in charcoal and then there is usually 1 or 2 layers of more broadly blocked in acrylic colour, where shapes and shadows start to come out. Some layers are thinner and more glaze like. I leave evidence of the charcoal drawing and the base layers with each additional layer. Then the acrylic layers are worked over with thicker impasto oil paint. I work back in with charcoal or pencil whenever it seems some definition, texture or shadow is needed.

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Lydie Paton is a South Australian artist. Born in Adelaide, she initially completed a double degree in Architecture and Landscape architecture at the University of Adelaide. Her background in landscape design and an interest in environmental science underpin her selection of subject matter. She works in a variety of mediums including printmaking. Her paintings and etchings often have botanical or ornithological themes. Within these common themes the representation can be quite varied – sometimes more representational while at other times more abstract.

‘I find the creative process informs the direction a particular work takes and often something discovered during an abstract exploration goes on to inform some detail in a more representational piece.’
Lydie has been painting her whole life, but in 2013, she began formal studies in fine arts at the Adelaide College of the Arts. The exposure in this course, to diverse mediums, led to an interest in varied art making techniques and an enthusiasm for experimentation with materials. In 2015, Lydie spent two years in Toronto, Canada, studying printmaking and etching under the tutelage of Brian Hoxha. Since then, she has been producing aluminium plate etchings.

Lydie says of her practice; “I create compulsively. I have three young children and so finding time to paint is tricky, but I squeeze it in, because I can’t help myself. I have always loved oil paints, frustrating and messy as they can be, they have a particular quality and I’m drawn to the texture, the evidence of brush marks and the rich colour they bring to an artwork.”
Lydie has been painting and printmaking professionally since 2012 and has been a Bluethumb artist for over 10 years. Her artworks are hung all over the world, including the USA, Canada, the UK and Australia.