‘In this exercise you’ll explore two approaches to the same subject, one in which the transparent qualities of the paint provide the dominant effect and the other which exploits the opacity of the paint’
The suggested subject was a winter tree against the sky, with dark coloured and light grounds.
I prepared two A3 canvas’s with a mix of Ultramarine and Payne’s Grey.
I live on the edge of a 250 acre park full of trees, and sometimes too much choice is a bad thing. Finding the ‘right tree’ (or so I thought) took absolutely ages.
I made some preparatory sketches and took photos as references so I could comprehend the intertwined mass of branches in the final pieces.
First Attempt:
Oak in Sutton park
Preparatory sketch
Opaque
Transparent
After completing the studies I was a bit disappointed in how they turned out, I felt that the object of the exercise, to explore light colours over dark grounds, how the transparency of paint effect the drama and composition and exploring negative space wasn’t really shown in the first two paintings.
Second Attempt:
I decided on a more interesting composition from a tree in my garden and took some photos to find the best angles,
Garden tree
Then using Sap Green and Payne’s Grey painted a larger ground on board and used a rougher approach to emphasis the negative spaces:
Opaque
Transparent
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