It’s taken me years to resurrect my blog, and I’ve just been compelled to write a post - I hope more will follow!! So this is where I am today, almost at the end of my current course on winter landscapes…
How does one go about getting the balance just right between a painting of and about the landscape? It’s something I hear from my students a lot. I’ve painted this landscape but it looks too pretty/neat/tame/unexciting/dull/twee…I could go on but you get the gist!
I’m coming to the end of my winter landscapes course, and this week we began the process of loosening up our approaches to the landscape, keeping some basic compositional rules in mind, and using a limited palette of wintry (mostly) cool colours. We had a few images in mind, but between looking at my demo on the screen, and their own work, my students couldn’t look at the photos (a set of varied winter landscapes) and begin that process of ‘copying’. That said, I can’t stress the importance of looking, recording (drawing, photographing, filming, observing) and retaining the details, the colour, composition, shape, values and details of the world around you, even when you aren’t trying to closely replicate it. The idea is to play, on paper, working quickly and with energy, for process to lead the way towards a more confident, larger scale, and more refined piece. Next week is our final week with the creation of a finished painting on wood panel/hard canvas, and I’m so excited about it! This is what we did last lesson in preparation…
