Saturday, October 31, 2015

More Fall Goodness

This fall has been a weird one, the foliage in the valley isn't doing what I expected, some trees are bare but most are only beginning to turn, and it's already October 31st!  Crazy.  So, I dug into my photos from autumn seasons past to find good subject matter to paint in the studio.  I pulled out a photo I took in the small, rural farming community of Peterson, Utah last year.  The attraction was the bright red tree in the middle flanked by yellow-orange aspens.


"Autumn Barn"

Acrylic 16" X 12"



I actually ended up painting this one twice.  First I painted it mostly using brushes, but there was just something about it I didn't like.  I thought it was the red tree.  I decided to paint over the whole thing using a palette knife, I was even thinking I'd make the red tree more of a red-orange but in the end I decided to keep it.  I like it much better after going over it with the palette knife but I'm not sure why, all I did was make minor hue and value adjustments, I guess that plus the rich texture the palette knife creates was enough.

I haven't abandoned the idea of painting fall colors from life yet, in fact I painted outside today but the painting still needs some work so I'll post it later.




2 comments:

  1. David, this looks great...love the textures you got with the palette knife. Like near you the trees here on Long Island have behaved strangely. Right now the colors are beautiful when usually the leaves are pretty much gone by now. The temps have been cold, then warm again...the poor trees must be so confused. lol I'm hoping to get a few more plein air landscapes done...and not all of them from my car. lol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Joan. I look forward to more of your plein air works.

      Delete