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Saturday, May 16, 2009

Trillium Landscape~Color Study


What started as a doodle became an all out quest. Like a dog with a bone, I've been obsessing over this study all day, every day since my last post. I'm clearly out to sea when it comes to painting landscapes. My friend & fellow artist, Anita Murphy wisely suggested I reduce the color values to suggest distance on the upslope of the hill, thereby creating more depth. It worked to a certain degree but I think I needed to vary my colors as well. Reduce the chroma, change the hue...whatever. I can now truly see why landscape artists prefer to paint plein air. I'm posting what I have at this point but think I'll set this one aside for the time being until I can educate myself more on what constitutes a really good landscape painting.

2 comments:

Jeanette Jobson said...

I think this study works very well Billie. I love that my eye travels over the scene then 'discovers' the trillium.

Keep on with this idea, it has a lot of potential. I'm not a great landscaper but you have that attention to detail that will make it a fabulous piece. How about some plein air or photos of the landscape around where these grew that you can use?

Billie Crain said...

Thanks, Jeanette.:) This scene came from memory and partially from imagination so I have no reference. I wish I had at least snapped a few long shots but I had originally intended to use the trilliums in a closeup floral. Ironically I wanted to create something with less detail but fell back into my old ways. *sigh* On the bright side, I've been wanting to try my hand at landscapes so maybe I'll learn something new anyway.