Two Gates

Its the time of year for painting trees. The leaf buds have just opened but are not numerous enough yet, to conceal the branches. In celebration of the lush growth I’ve used Cadmium Yellow instead of the usual Yellow Ochre or Raw Sienna to produce richer greens. As usual with such a strong colour I’ve tried to spread it as much as possible, especially in the sky, to maintain a harmony of colour throughout the painting.

In planning the painting I was interested in the shapes of the trees and so I needed to isolate them from the background. I didn’t want to use a ‘photographic’ blur in the distance, so although the distance is not sharply defined I painted a few details sharply (the tree trunks) to produce a ‘human eye’ scene and not what a camera sees. Another design trick was to have a lighter tone in the distance. Finally, the viewpoint was low enough to raise the hedgerow and silhouette it against the sky and distant forest.

The colours used are Cadmium Yellow, Burnt Sienna and Prussian Blue plus black and white. I’ve not used any medium just solvent. This, I think, helps a lot in keeping the loose and sketchy look to the painting. Sometimes a medium, even Liquin, produces a ‘stickiness’ which makes painting heavy and stodgy.

Here’s the video of the painting process. See you soon.