Learning

For my own sake I am posting a snippet of this painting I'm working on, I was having trouble getting all the colors to work together which meant I was going to have to paint over some things and I really wanted to document this before hand because I love the colors so much.

Practicing finishing paintings has had a really lovely effect on my artistic abilities. I finished treescape twelve and promoted it from exercise to painting. It's on The Weight of a Crow if you'd like to see it. I feel like it is one of the best technically rendered pieces I've done which I blame on the patience I've been developing for the sake of these exercises.

Treescape 12 and the Question of How

I decided to paint 100 treescapes just to learn how to paint the things that are hard to paint about trees and their surroundings. Always I end up with this question: should I move on quickly from one painting to another since this is a learning exercise or should I make finished pieces? Given that the moment the painting gets difficult is the moment I want to move on and that finishing paintings is as practice worthy as painting moss, ferns, leaves and evergreen boughs, I feel like I should relax and try to make nice pieces. The question reminds me of a couple things the Buddhist teacher Cheri Huber always says, it's not what but how and one process does not lead to another. I haven't exactly figured out exactly how to apply this wisdom to my scenario, but I know that being in a hurry or avoiding difficult things while learning how to paint trees will not turn me into a patient and fearless painter of trees. Of course driving myself to be a perfect painter of trees will only turn me into a perfectionist. So whether I choose to make painting or do practice exercises is really not the point. To be patient as I learn, to be devoted to learning, to feel the beauty I want to paint...that would be more the point.

Treescape 11: Oak Trail

It is really hard to do a watercolor outside on a drizzly day so I finished most of this at home from a photo i took on my phone.
Here's number 10 with a little revision:

Under-painting: Overlook Trail

Just for fun, here is an under-painting for a landscape I am doing from a sketch off the Overlook Trail in Hoyt Arboretum. I love that the tree on the right looks like a giraffe a bit.

Treescape 10

I'm tempted to keep painting treescapes as fast as possible without really worrying about making finished pieces, just to learn and practice. Trees are so complex. I feel like this painting started out too simple and then got a little overworked as I added value to the trees. Maybe when the rain comes back I can lock myself up with all my treescapes and finish them. I am really glad to see my whimsy back though, after the paintings I did at Owen's Open space and Chip Ross Park.

Treescape 9

This picture completely tickles me. I sent it to my brother on my phone to say "Hi, I'm out painting!" but I am smitten with the painting next to the subject. If it looks to you like I left out a tree, well...yes...I did omit a tree. When I first started painting trees I would have thought such a thing preposterous. As one who wants to celebrate nature and meditates on the perfection of things as they are, I would never have come up with the idea myself. Luckily, I took a workshop from an amazing painter, Phyllis Trowbridge, who casually mentioned she changes things to make a good painting. This was years ago but I remember her saying something about evaluating a painting in progress and deciding, that tree doesn't belong there. I was amazed. I have a long gestation period for hatching useful information into practice, but it is nice that it eventually comes to fruition.
Here's Trowbridge's site.

At least the Robin

 

I didn't really like the hedge in this painting so I painted it out but I can't quite figure out how to make sense of  the painting now. It is neither a place nor an abstract piece. I am hoping if I put it away for a while I will see what needs to be done. At least the robin is intact.

 

I am still working on this treescape but I am concerned I am ruining it, the under-painting was so beautiful. It has a similar issue as the robin painting in that it is between abstract and real. Clearly I am going for a whimsical abstracted style but I still want it to hang together as a place one could walk around in. Again, maybe if I let it be for a while it will make more sense.