40x60 Tree, Work in Progress Stage 5

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Painting Journal

I'm checking in with stage 5 of the giant tree painting, 40x60 inches. It is coming along now fairly quickly. it still needs about 2 sessions I think. I'll be working on it again on Monday and Tuesday of next week. Working on a large oil painting takes a lot of time. There is a fair amount of tweaking to be done. I try to move around the painting a lot, doing small corrections as I go. Today I worked on the back atmospheric areas behind the trees, adding bits of light here and there in the grasses behind the trees. I extended the trunk of the bare tree further down in the foreground to correct the intervals between trees. I added a distant tree on the far left to balance the composition too. I'm having fun. It is quite impressive in it's large size. The photo doesn't do it justice.

Not Your Everyday Canvas

Notes From My Tree Painting Journal

Sometimes it is great fun to paint trees on furniture. I have done several paintings of trees on tables and yesterday I painted this frame. I have painted this as a commission for a tree lover. I must say that it was far more difficult to do than a canvas. Because I had to think of the painting with a giant missing part and steps of uneven surfaces, it was necessary to keep the composition fairly simple and without a lot of detail.  I really enjoyed  the process. Trees are wonderful wherever you put them.

Two Tree Paintings

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Painting Journal

This is stage two of a 40x60 inch tree painting. It is a mess right now but I have high hopes that it will turn into something after a couple more sessions. It is oils.

I really enjoyed doing this alla prima painting last Sunday at Fair Oaks in Evinston,FL.

It is acrylic on deep gallery wrap canvas. I framed it with a natural floater frame with a black liner. This tree was full of character. It is quite large and very old. There are scars all over the trunk and all kinds of odd warts on the surface. It has many stories to tell me. I will take another crack at it one day with a  larger canvas.

Getting Ready for my Tree Workshop I

Left Chart- Trunks and limbs

Right Chart- Canopy

Notes From My Tree Painting Journal

Today I worked on some charts for my workshop on Saturday this week. One of the things we won't have time for is chart making, so I think I will want to hang these charts in the studio for my students to see how I do basic color mixes  for tree paintings. I have a chart book full of charts for mixing landscape paintings but I wanted to simplify a bit, particularly on the greens. I have a seven color palette for the greens and an 8 color palette for limbs and trunks. Of course some of those trunk and limb colors will work for fall and winter trees too. 

The Work Begins- Live Oak Hammock- Work in Progress

Live Oak Hammock

40x60 inches

oil on deep gallery wrap canvas

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Painting Journal

I started this painting today in my painting studio. It is a big one and I'm really enjoying it so much. I'm using oils this time, so it will work perfectly with my one day a week schedule of painting process. I am in my loft studio in Gainesville four days a week, at Fair Oaks for my residency there one day a week. I need to do chores and business stuff on one day a week, so that leaves me one good day in my painting studio in the woods. I will try to sneak out there a few extra hours but will have about 3 hours a week on this painting. 

There is nothing I love more than working on a big tree painting. Live Oaks are just so grand to paint. I love the big curved limbs and the moss draped canopy. I'm suing the following palette for this painting.

French ultramarine blue

ivory black

yellow ochre

trans red iron oxide

cad lemon yellow

cad red light

thalo blue red shade

Naples yellow

cad orange

I love the way small limbs curve out below the canopy. Often cattle will chew them off but these are intact. This is the Florida I love so much. Fields of these huge trees with dead trunks here and there and sometimes tall Cabbage palms. The Florida I have roamed through most of my life.

I'll show you the stages through completion.