Woodland Deep
This is an exercise in painting without the fine brush drawing which I’ve been doing lately. The difficulty is in not doing the things I’m comfortable with. There are no fine lines of branches or grasses, just blobs of paint representing these details. Its a photographic approach and a comfortable image. I occasionally paint in this way to keep in touch with the visual world as opposed to the ‘Gothic’ world of lines constructed from what I know to be there and not what I see.
I’m very aware of the fact that this is a primitive approach. Children paint outlines of what they think objects look like, not what they actually see. In a way this is what I do and I’m aware of it. A tell-tale sign of this is in the amount of time I spend ‘constructing’ bits of a landscape which will never be seen in the final painting because they are obscured by later additions to the scene.
The initial layer was more or less a featureless flood of ‘solvent only’ paint. When most of the solvent evaporated, the later additions of paint had neither solvent or medium added. The paint did not flow and the application was in short strokes. This effectively ‘disabled’ the drawing technique which was the object of the exercise. The palette was limited to three colours as usual. These were Cadmium Yellow, Burnt Sienna and Prussian Blue.
I will post the video of the painting process in a few days. See you then.
PictureS 
This is absolutely beautiful. It has movement, which is one thing that I always notice about a piece. If the piece has life you can relate to it so much easier. Always something I work towards when I am at my easel as well. Excellent job, always enjoy your work and videos. Can’t wait to see the video!
Thank you. I’m delighted you liked.
Great article about a great piece! I like how you explained your change in approach for this piece.
Thank you Melissa.
Love the possibilites, the mystery.
Thank you Elena.
Treatment of the light is really effective. Density of paint also kind of reflects density of the trees. Definitely makes one want to be there.
Thank you Alli. Unfortunately that textured dark paint is difficult to light without glare in the camera.
This is wonderful. The experiment is a success. It is so atmospheric
Thank you Rosie. A change is as good as a rest 🙂
And often leads in new directions, as I’m finding with my own work 🙂
I’m attracted by this more expressionistic approach – the distant light evokes an almost narrative…
Thanks John. I must try and be a bit more diverse.
It works beautifully. And congratulations for having the courage to let go of old familiar working habits to discover new ground.
thanks for stopping by and Liking my tulips painting.
Thank you Sarah.
I really like the colors and how you explained the process…….:) Thanks for stopping by my post.
Your paintings have a lot of mysterious atmosphere. Definitely another world vision. Thank you for sharing your expertise. And thanks for stopping by my site.
I love to do studies and exercises with limitations. It helps build speed and technique and sometimes you learn such great new things.Here, I can see how you are building the light rather than the form. How fantastic! Training your eyes to see that way is both enlightening and scary. Love this.
Thank you for the comment Kari. Glad you liked.