Painting the woods

by YankeeJim | August 5, 2011 at 09:37 am

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From where I sit

When I paint plein air in the woods, I try to capture the feeling of the place. Every location and every day and time of day is different. I paint pretty fast, yet often the scene is changing faster than I can keep up as the Sun changes location in the sky while we’re rotating about on our axis here on Earth.

I am studying trees – more I am trying to learn how to capture them in watercolor. I sometimes focus on the bark, while other times I try to assemble a comprehensive view.

Trees and forests may appear brown and green to some people, but believe me, there are many other colors going on in the woods.

“Landscape art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works landscape backgrounds for figures can still form an important part of the work. Sky is almost always included in the view, and weather is often an element of the composition. Detailed landscapes as a distinct subject are not found in all artistic traditions, and develop when there is already a sophisticated tradition of representing other subjects. The two main traditions spring from Western painting and Chinese art, going back well over a thousand years in both cases.”

“Top 10 Virginia Trees

White oaks
Red oaks
Yellow pines (includes loblolly)
Tulip tree (yellow-poplar)
Maples
Hickories
Sweetgum
White pine
Beech
Tupelo (black gum)”