A rotation of tree studies

Notes From My Tree Painting Journal

I have been doing ten 8x10 studies of various subjects for the Daily Paintworks web site. I'm in the middle of a 10 day study of trees. I could paint trees for a hundred years and still be completely intrigued by them.  These studies keep me in study mode, which is the best place to be for a painter in my opinion. There are too many advanced painters who stop studying painting when they become established. I will always be a student of painting and these tree studies help me to advance my skill level. 

Live Oak 3 Study

8x10 inches

Acrylic on canvas panel

A big painting

Notes From My Tree Painting Journal

The above paintings are possible compositions for my next 40x60 inch Live Oak Painting. I sold the 40x60 painting I had in the town studio on Thursday. I have ordered a new canvas which will arrive in about 2 weeks, so I am busy doing various composings  for the next big painting. 

I'll do some miniatures as well to help me decide on palette as well. It is always exciting for me to do a large format tree painting. I can only do them as one sells. It is very hard for me to store large paintings and expensive to do. I'm excited!

Lots of tree studies

Live Oak Study

8x10 inches

Acrylic on panel

I have been doing a lot of tree studies over the last month, getting my acrylic skills back and having a lot of fun with the process of painting. Sometimes doing multiple studies allows me to just free up and not worry about good or bad. I am switching between oils and acrylics regularly, to keep both skill sets up to par. 

I'm in Crystal River this week, using oils to paint the wild red cedars and cabbage palms. Great practice!

Nice to be recognized

I was delighted to receive a two page spread in an area style magazine this month. My advanced copies were delivered to my studio today. A wonderful thing for a tree painter!

A painting in the champion tree series

Work in progress

Champion trees

www.lindablondheim.com

Notes From My Tree Painting Journal

This is the co-national champion bald cypress tree from Mississippi. It is quite a challenge. This is session two. I have about two sessions to go. These champions are amazing! I'll show you the finished painting. 

A Pine Painting

Tree Art

http://www.lindablondheim.com

Notes From My Tree Painting Journal

This painting was inspired by the 13 paintings I did on location at Wekiva State Park a few weeks ago. I learned a lot during that trip and process. I wanted to do a larger studio painting while I had the painting experience fresh in my mind. I spent a couple of weeks working on this 18x24 studio version, finishing it up just this afternoon. 

From all of these paintings, I learned to paint pines without too much detail and precision. A lot of the pine paintings I have seen are a bit overdone which makes them almost cartoonish and quite illustrative. Of course, it is a matter of preference for painters and some like the tight detail. I don't like slap dash sloppy tree paintings, but I do like to leave the viewer with the fresh quality of paint, not too refined. 

The most important elements I learned were color mixing for pine trees and the quality of masses of pine trees together in stands, as well as the design elements associated with pines in a field. Quite valuable knowledge to add to my tree painting knowledge. 

Oh trees! How lovely they are and how difficult to paint well for me!

A new Tree Painting

Trees

16x20 inches

Oil on canvas

www.lindablondheim.com

Notes From My Tree Painting Journal

This is the first painting I did at my new studio space. I enjoyed it. I used the same palette that I practiced with in the pine forest at Wekiva State Park. I am finding that I really like the simplicity of the  greens mixed with the palette. 

I'll soon be painting the brilliant colors of Spring. 

Painting Pine Trees

 Notes From My Tree Journal

I spent Sunday-Thursday this week painting in the pine woods at Wekiva State Park. I am here for the annual paint out, sponsored by Wekiva Island, bless their good hearts. This is a wonderful opportunity to study the design of pine trees. I did not try to do realist interpretation of the trees, instead focusing on their elemental design, so these are interpretive. Anytime I can focus on trees for 5 days uninterrupted, I am pleased. I did 13 pine paintings in sizes, 5x7,6x8,9x12,12x12,12x16. I worked in all weather condition from sun, partly cloudy, overcast, and rain, so it was a great opportunity to alter my palette as well through the five days. A rare time of focus and discovery here at Wekiva.

Amazing Nature

Ice Trees

Notes From My Tree Painting Journal

I took this photo this morning before I started my truck, Leroy. It is an amazing tree painting by nature in ice. What a lovely gift to me. Nature knows I am a tree painter. 

This week I am working on an 18x24 oil painting of trees. I am having a hard time with the painting, trying to work out issues with the trunks. Some foreshortening and textural issues to overcome. If trees were easy to paint, everyone would paint them!

I keep plugging along, learning what I can about painting them. I need to get started on another champion tree. I am doing a small commission too, so my champion trees are waiting patiently in the wings. 

Update on the Tree Commission

36 x 61 inches

Oil on canvas

I'm ready to show this painting to my collectors, hoping they will be pleased. I only have the bottom edge to paint, after the other edges are dry. I love hanging big paintings on the featured wall at my studio. My collectors will look at it tomorrow. I really love painting big trees.

Live Oak on Fair Oaks Pond

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

This pond has been dry for about two years. It finally filled again after tropical storm Debbie arrived in June. I have painted this tree many times and am very fond of it. It is quite large and has a wonderful leaning shape, making it very interesting as a subject for painting. We are in the dog days of summer now and I have just returned from a week long residency on the Nature Coast of Florida. In a couple of weeks I will have time to do another tree painting. It has been a busier summer than I expected and the time is slipping by. I want to do a tree painting on a wooden table or bench soon and will show that to you shortly. 

Live Oak Tree Painting

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Painting Journal

I started this painting on location at Fair Oaks on Sunday afternoon. It was really cold, in the low to mid 40's all day. We have had practically no cold weather this year so I was unprepared. I was woefully under dressed for the conditions. I managed to get a completed 5x7 study and to start this painting. I worked on it yesterday and today in my painting studio behind the house. I really enjoyed doing it but my light is burned out over the easel so it was a bit of a struggle to see well enough. Today was a better session and I was able to finish it up. I find that I have become used to painting in my other studio, the loft, and like painting there most of the time. it is a cozy space and warmer than my home studio. The light is better too.

I have painted this tree before, but never from this angle. It is a quite interesting specimen with it's curving winding trunk. I can only imagine all it has endured in its long life. It is perched on the edge of a wetland pond, which is now a dry prairie due to the constant drought in our part of the world.

Next week I will be able to paint several trees at my week long residency at Fair Oaks. Always my favorite tree place.

From:  http://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/4h/live_oak/liveoak.htm

Identifying Characteristics
Size/Form:	Live oak is a large tree that reaches heights of 65' to 85'. It has a wide spreading crown and is buttressed and flared at the base of the trunk.
Leaves:	The leaves are simple, alternately arranged, and may persist on the tree through winter until they gradually fall as new leaves emerge in the spring. The leaves are 2" to 5" long by ½" to 2 ½" wide. The narrowly to broadly elliptical shaped leaves are usually stiff and leathery. The upper surface is shiny, dark green. The leaves are dull grayish green underneath. The leaf base is tapering and the tip is short pointed to rounded. The margin is smooth and slightly wavy.
Fruit:	The acorns are ¾" to 1" long, broadest at the base to almost uniformly wide and rounded to pointed at the tip. Acorns are light brown within the cap that covers ¼ of the dark nut. The largest part of the acorn is dark brown to black and shiny. They occur solitary or in clusters of three to five nuts, and they mature in one season on the current year's branchlets.
Bark:	The dark brown to reddish-brown bark is thick with shallow furrows and roughly ridged, eventually becoming blocky with age.
Habitat:	Inhabiting a wide variety of sites, you can find live oak in almost pure stands, or scattered in mixed woodlands, hammocks, flatwoods, borders of salt marshes, roadsides, city lots, and commonly scattered in pastures. Live oak is found growing in association with several other hardwoods, including the water oak, laurel oak, sweetgum, southern magnolia, and American holly.

The Next Red Cedar

Residency Project Tree

Notes From my Tree Journal

This is my second painting from my studies of glazing methods. Tomorrow I will work on canvas with this method to see what happens with that.  I find this to be interesting, but it's early in my study of the process, so I have not decided whether to include this in my tool box of technique or not.

 The pros include:

 a more luminous quality to the paint surface

soft edge work

easier to do than opaque acrylic process

Faster than opaque method, as there is less need for tight brush work. Having said that, painters who like tight rendering and detail would have to work much more to get that with this method.

The Cons include:

A less impressive brush quality

Fairly weak edge work where you really need to have a crisp clean edge

Contrast is more difficult in the high key values, in other words weak lights and poorer contrast. For painters who like the middle range of values this method is an asset.

It is much too early for conclusions, so I must do more research and improve my skill with the technique.

A Research Trees Painting

Tree Paintings

Notes From my Tree Journal

Today I decided to do some experimenting on a 9x12 inch painting. I started it recently with abasic block in with opaque acrylic application. Today, rather than carrying on in my usual method of opaque layers, I decided to use thin layers mixed with glazing medium for each application. It is a different look and more luminous than the method I usually use. I have seen a lot of acrylic work with multiple thin layers and never much cared for it, but this is a bit different because the initial block in is opaque. It was intriguing and interesting, so I will try again tomorrow with another 9x12 that I blocked in a couple of weeks ago. If that one goes well, I will next try this technique with a stretched large format painting to see how it goes.

Pines at Merritt Island Wildlife Preserve

Tree Paintings

Notes From my Tree Journal

This was a wonderful part of the wildlife preserve, right off the paved road. I was there around 9:30 AM when the light was in transition across the field of pines. I really love pine hammocks. I used a birch panel for this painting and it really gives me a different surface than the stretched canvas.The paint has a flatter quality and is harder to soften. It also has a much more atmospheric quality on this surface. The paint stroke is more separated if that makes sense, giving a more deliberate stroke, les blended than painting on canvas. It's fun to experiment with different support surfaces.

Red Cedar at Merritt Island National Wildlife Preserve

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

I got the time to finish this painting today in the studio. These Red Cedars were especially lovely at Merritt Island Wildlife Preserve. Because of the harsh climate, many of them are missing large parts of their canopy, exposing the beautiful trunks and limbs. They have much more character than the cedars that grow in my neighborhood. They have a wild and interesting growth. Lots of them have broken off limbs. I suppose they are whipped around a lot during coastal storms. They look quite old.

I used the following palette for the painting:

cadmium red light

cadmium orange

yellow ochre

lemon yellow

ultramarine blue

thalo blue

titanium white

mars black

The Senator

I was heartbroken to hear that the Senator has burned and collapsed in Longwood Florida.

I got the information below from Atlas Obscura

Thought to be the eighth oldest tree in the world, the Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) affectionately known as the “Senator,” stands in a small park located in Longwood, FL.
Its estimated age of 3,500 years makes it only slightly younger than the carefully guarded Great Basin Bristlecone Pine of California known as Methuselah. To get a good sense of how old this tree really is, one must keep in mind the “Senator” was alive not only during the time of Jesus, but for 1500 years before that when the Greeks destroyed Troy, the Olmecs were powerful in Mexico, Solomon succeeded King David, and Stonehenge was being constructed. Unlike the secret location of the ancient pine, this cypress is very accessible to the public.
The “Senator” is the largest tree east of the Mississippi and currently stands at 118 feet tall with a circumference of 35 feet. A hurricane in 1925 damaged the top of the tree, shortening it from its original height of 165 feet.

The tremendous size of the tree made it useful to both Indians and early settlers as a marker when traveling through the area. Tourists have frequented the area to view the tree since the 1800’s and the land on which it resides was donated to Seminole County by the late Senator M.O. Overstreet to ensure the preservation of the tree. It was in memory of Senator Overstreet that the cypress received its present name. Following the donation in 1927, a ceremony hosted by President Calvin Coolidge, officially opened the property to the public in 1929.
Surrounded today by the Spring Hammock Preserve, the “Senator” shares space with a companion tree known as “Lady Liberty.” This companion Bald Cypress is a comparatively youthful 2,000 years old and stands 89 feet in height with a circumference of 32 feet.

Notes From My Adventure to Volusia County

Notes From My Tree Blog

I just returned from a five day residency in Volusia County. The highlight of the trip for me was the diversity of the landscape and the many beautiful trees I saw in the wild places. This county has exceptional protected lands, both at the Canaveral National Seashore and Merritt Island Wildlife Preserve, as well as the County parks scattered around. I will be posting paintings soon and showing you some photos of the excellent tree specimens I saw, including  Pines, Cedars, huge hammocks of cabbage palms in the marshes, and graceful Canary and Date Palms.

Working on a tough tree painting

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Painting Journal

Right now I'm working on a tough little 9x12 painting of trees at the river. It is giving me a world of trouble. Who knows why? Now and then I work on one that I can't seem to do anything with. It's like being a beginner again. I'm having some issues with color temperature and values on it. I left it on the easel at my loft studio. I'll be painting in New Smyrna Beach for a week, leaving on Monday for my first

Artists in Residence Project for 2012. I imagine some time away from the painting will improve my chances to improve it and finally overcome the challenge. Stepping away from a difficult painting can often solve the problem.

I'll have lots to share when I return so don't give up on me.

Trees in My Yard II

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

This painting  is 9x12 inches on stretched canvas.

I started this painting yesterday and finished it today in the studio from a reference photo I took in the field next to my yard. To me, light and contrast make this painting. I wanted the largest tree, on the right, to be the star with the other two trees as supporting characters. So I gave the right tree the most texture and strongest contrast in light. I also found the weeds and small flowers around the trunks to be very interesting. I made the path more prominent than it really was, to lead the viewer into the painting. I enjoy these small paintings. They give me ideas and technique building to do larger paintings later.