Possibly the most striking feature of the countryside in winter, is the trees. For most of the year they blend into each other, dressed in their summer colours and blend with the greens of the hedgerows and fields, which is lovely of course. However, to really appreciate the beauty of their form you have to see them naked. In winter they are naked. I find the shape of the deciduous tree in winter, intriguing. I look closely at them, study them. The heavy trunk, branches out in in a random almost distorted way, each branch splitting into smaller ones, which also branch out, almost ad-finitum. Yet, the tree overall, will have an almost perfect spherical shape. This is especially true of the solitary tree.
When painting a tree in winter, the greatest challenge is painting the tiny outermost twigs. Firstly being tiny, they require a very small brush, and because there are so many you need a lot of patience. You can fudge it, of course, and to be fair, in reality, we are only trying to create the illusion of twigs, that’s what art is about. For me though I find it amazing that what appears to be so random in growth becomes so graceful in the fullness of the whole tree. I think a naked tree is a bit like a woman. I’ll let you think about that.
I did a small watercolour last week, trying to capture these trees in the winter landscape. I wasn’t that happy with it, and wanted to try again. I chose to work in acrylics on canvas for the next attempt. This decision was probably influenced by the fact that I have a lots of canvas lying around. Im, not sure if I can easily explain, why, I as a watercolour painter, feel compelled to buy canvas sets any time I see them!
I was also influenced to use acrylic because I wasn’t to sure what I wanted to do, exactly, except that I wanted to take a more abstract approach. Acrylic allows me to work in a different way, a different mode and mindset. Acrylic paint is opaque, so that you can change direction during the painting process. This is something that’s not easy to do with watercolour.
I am trying to determine what makes a good abstract painting. I am always drawn to paint detail. If I can paint less detail but still retain the essence of the thing, that’s the key (maybe). If you go too far you could lose it altogether. I want to spend some time trying to abstract the landscape/seascape. I don’t think this is an easy thing to do.
Anyway, after prepping the canvas, I put on a layer of greeny/blue, which didn’t look too realistic, so I painted again using a lighter more realistic sky blue. Then I laid in a hazy suggestion of distant trees on the horizon, before starting on the bare trees that were to be the main feature. I spent a good deal of time on the trees and the painting was taking shape, but was not very loose or abstract.
The next day, having slept on it, I returned to the canvas. On impulse, I took my pallet knife and started buttering on thick layers of the paint I had been using (burnt umber/raw sienna/ ultramarine). I preserved the greeny/blue already dry, and using the knife created the furrows of a waterlogged ploughed field. The abstraction created itself. The finished product has now elements of realism and abstraction within it. It’s the best I can do for now.
Will I go one step further and abstract the scene further? I don’t know. I think I will leave this one as it is. Maybe tomorrow I’ll start another.