Tree Vista Painting

Tree Art

Early Summer

18x24 inches

oil on canvas

You can purchase my tree paintings on my web site with free shipping, or at my 

Loft Studio in Gainesville, FL

Notes From My Tree Painting Journal

This was a great scene to paint with several spaces between trees. Creating the distance with textural and color temperature changes was a great and fun way to create the depth I needed in this vista. Add to that the painting was 18x24 inches and I did about 90% of it on location alla prima. The bugs were biting and it was humid, but I truly enjoyed the process.

I have been a bit out of sorts with color recently, so I have gone back to my favorite single primary palette for awhile to get myself reigned in. This is a palette that I love and have used for many years when I want to make color mixing easy. It is quite versatile and will produce quite a nice range. Here it is:

Ivory Black (Daniel Greene)

Titanium White (Gamblin )

UB ( Old Holland )

Cad Red Light ( Gamblin )

Lemon Yellow ( Windsor and Newton )

Any brand will work with the above palette.

My favorites are:

Gamblin

Old Holland

Windsor and Newton

Shiva

Daniel Greene

Grumbacher Pre-Test

Utrecht

Painting limbs, twigs, and branches

Tree Art

Notes From My Tree Painting Journal

This year in my quest toward excellence as a tree painter, I am studying limbs,twigs, and foreshortening in trees. This is an area often avoided by painters because it is really hard. I see lots of paintings of trees with limbs to the sides of the trees. I understand. It is  a struggle to learn these elements of trees and to do them well. I am on that path for the year to try and figure this out. 

Everything about painting trees is challenging really, from the roots to the scale as they rise up into the sky. It is like trying to paint a tall building correctly. Hopefully, my trees will get better and better as I struggle along, but painting is so hard that in a lifetime I won't figure it out. That is the good news!!