Neighbourhood Trees

Trees are difficult. The more you see, the more there is to paint and that is where the difficulties arise; for me at least. The format was too small for the subject, but I kept going and found huge frustration in trying to capture the blinding sunlight on the leaves and trunks as well as capturing form and depth of the foliage. Greens still not totally correct, but I learned a huge amount. I started with big washes and worked up to the detail in stages which made it slightly over-worked in the end, but it is acceptable enough to post here.  I know it doesn't have to be a dead-accurate representation of the original photograph, but I did want to portray more than an interpretation. 

"Neighbourhood Trees"

Gouache on Watercolour Paper - 4.75" x 4.25" (Approx.) 

Original Photograph

Homage to Henri Fantin-Latour

I decided to celebrate the first day of 2013 with a gouache to hopefully set the tone for doing more paintings during the year ahead. I chose a detail from a wonderful painting by Henri Fantin-Latour (shown below) because I needed something to copy. At present I am not in the mood for doing anything original or challenging. This was challenging enough as the paper is too rough, but I am satisfied with it, so that's saying something!

Happy New Year to all who stop by my blog.

"Homage to Henri Fantin-Latour"

Gouache on Watercolour Paper - 10" x 9" (Approx.) 

Original Painting by Henri Fantin-Latour