Flipping through a travel guide for Germany revealed a lot of castles, medieval-style towns, and lush forests. One of the most famous forests is the Black Forest, known for its tall pine trees and beaming rays of sun penetrating the mist. Unfortunately, Germany is also known for clear cutting forests in order to strip-mine for bauxite and other ores in the earth. Its sad to think of the thousands of years of history wrapped up in a forest that gets converted into a desolate open-pit mine in a matter of months. I contemplated making this painting a single, long brown brushstroke to symbolize the razed earth, but then decided instead to try and show what the beauty of nature can be by showing the trees and the undergrowth. To do the painting, I put down a graded wash to create the background glow, then applied the trees using a mix of indo blue (PB60) and burnt yellow ochre (PR102), with some carbon black (PBk6) in the foreground trees. Dabs of yellow and olive green completed the effect.
World Inspired Landscapes: Germany, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, October 2022 (No. 3204a)
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