Friday, October 1, 2010

Simplifying


Fall Colors
8 x 10
oil on canvas board
I've been posting little but painting lots, not for the purpose of producing a finished painting but instead to play and experiment with some of the concepts that I have been learning from Stapleton Kearns blog. He is so very generous with his knowledge and there is much to learn. At the same time I want to take a far looser and more colorful approach to painting but the basic rules of landscape painting can still be applied. The little painting above is based on a scene I photographed as I was pulling out of a park after a plein air session. The sun had momentarily come out from behind the clouds and I quickly parked the car again and got some great photos. Now I see what painters mean when they say one has to catch the scene quickly or the light changes. The hard part was to try not to put too much detail in and I finally had to put down the small brushes and stick to the big ones.

4 comments:

Pat said...

I love this painting! It has a real feel of sunshine through the leaves on a crisp autumn day. Gorgeous xx

Dana Cooper said...

I love all the color in this piece Barb! And I would agree that anything that stretches your painting muscles are valuable...I'm off to check him out!

Marie Theron said...

So nice to find something by you, Barb! And such a happy painting too!

Unknown said...

Thanks so much Pat, Dana and Marie - I think this does reflect the space I am in right now feeling excited about new ideas, feeling like I'm establishing a personal style and not producing much on canvas but progressing quickly in terms of understanding more about the art of landscape. Now to translate that knowledge to my paintings.