Not Every Twig

“Remember that it is the general structure and movement of the tree that is important to your painting, not every twig.” – Joanna Carrington, Landscape Painting for Beginners, 1971

With the warm weather and long days, it seems only right to be outdoors with my paint palette. Escaping to the shade, away from the aggressive sun and heat, I can make watercolor studies of trees that I just couldn’t accomplish otherwise. And I really think that the speed which these dry outdoors, with the sunlight and warm breeze, give them a different quality somehow than those that dry slowly indoors.

I concentrated on the general shapes of the trees, their masses. The sunlight breaks them up, reducing them to fairly abstract things. Sitting on The Long Meadow in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, I just focused on the relationship between large areas and smaller areas, and between light and dark tonal values.

I used to get hung up on small details when working on these plein air studies. The idea is to work in a quick, broad manner and to concentrate on the larger, more general masses. Details have their place, but usually not here where they are actually really easy to let go of once you know how. Initially, though, that is a difficult thing to learn.

^ “Trees (I.)” Watercolor study. approx. 4 x 6″ © Bullock Online 2014

^ “Trees (II.)” Watercolor study. approx. 4 x 6″ © Bullock Online 2014

^ “The Long Meadow, Prospect Park, Brooklyn” Watercolor study. approx. 4 x 6″

                                                             © Bullock Online 2014

Shape and Pattern

[^ Still-life with Bowls and Citrus. charcoal. 10×14″. © Bullock Online 2013]

“Unity is necessary because without it our minds and eyes are worried by disorganized muddle. Some shape and pattern has to be imposed; things have to ‘hang together’. On the other hand without variety, our second need, our eyes quickly become bored and lose interest.”

– Bernard Dunstan, Composing Your Paintings (1971)

Still-lifes offer the great advantage of being able to compose a painting and work on it at one’s leisure under what is pretty much a perfectly controlled situation. The objects, the lighting, everything. Fruit and flowers wilt but can be replaced. Overall, it is pretty ideal.

Composition skills are especially important in still-life subjects, in my opinion. I went about composing this with two aims — to disrupt all these round shapes while keeping visual balance. Ellipses are something I am still struggling with a bit, evidently.

But it is fun and productive to grab a few things from around the apartment, and to put something together, and to get some pencils or brushes to see what comes of it.

Just have to get better at those ellipses.

Visit Bullock Online: paintings and works on paper by Robert Edward Bullock.