Trees Aren't Always the Star

Tree Paintings

Notes From My Tree Journal

Being a tree painter at heart, it is hard for me not to focus on them all the time in my paintings. Sometimes they have to take second stage in the composition.  The difficulty is in deciding how much or little detail to put into tree masses in the distance. I often simply leave them as dark masses, or gray masses with little contrast. To me it really depends on how much of a vista there is and how distant they are. This is a poor image of the painting as I am known for poor photography, but the trees in this example are not so strong in the real painting. They are softer and more harmonious with the land mass. As you can see, the center of interest is in the marsh grasses around the water flow.

It's so easy to be caught up in the scene wanting to make everything interesting. It takes thought and composing well to know where to create interest and where to knock the detail back.