One more for old times sake, this was done from a photo of a tree on one of the back roads where I used to ride my bike and where my Dad still does ride his bike, and my Mom too. I was painting the rural scenes in the area because they were picturesque, but also because they were slowly vanishing at the hands of building developers. I'm not sure if this tree is still there or not, it was not looking very healthy last time I saw it.
Painting from photo is tricky because the camera flattens out everything including the colours. Shadows that are normally filled with life become dark and neutral. Here, the shadows are clearly very dark which brings out more contrast but then looses a bit of the reflected light that would have come of the road and from the sky. The sky also takes on some strange tones in a photo and it is often really quite turquoise the farther up it is. Anyhow, this painting does capture the feel of the scene, I can almost feel the legs burning getting up that hill!
5 x 7 " (12 x 18 cm) Watercolour, cold press, 1996
No comments:
Post a Comment