Color and Trees Can Be Fun If You Let Them

I am relatively known for my use of color and for my paintings of trees. ... quite often people will contact me and tell me they enjoy seeing my website, my Facebook posting, or my blog because they enjoy the trees and also how much they enjoy my use of color.

So, when I felt in a little slump a few months ago, my answer for that was to just paint paintings of trees, or with many trees in them... and experiement somewhat with my colors.

Oh, What to Do?

I was really frustrated, and decided I needed to do something to make it more fun. I pulled out some plein air pieces and a couple of studio paintings that I had put aside until I could figure out whether to completely brush them off and start over, or brush parts off and try to salvage something from the original idea.

Here are a couple of things I have done. Now remember, I am showing you some, in my opinion, failed tree paintings and then what I am doing to it or with it. And, I might not be finished with some in the second incarnation! And so far, I am working on pastels in this correction mode! I do have one large oil painting I might do another post about.

Here is the first one ... think about what you like or don't like, and how would you correct this one. Really study ... it takes some time to analyze.

Callaway Gardens
Plein Air 16"x20" Pastel

Here is the start of what
is a renewal hopefully.

So, even though I have changed quite a bit about this plein air painting ... making it a studio painting ... there is more work to do. I have made a few subtle changes from the second image above. The next image shows it as it stands today waiting for a final assessment. Any changes are a little difficult to see here, but ... maybe you can.

So, color to me is a little more emotional than what I see in reality. I want to create a mood, a story, a viewer participation in my work. On my Facebook page I posted a bit about not using gray or brown ... I purposely look at any color that can be classified either brown or gray and think to myself, which color does it lean toward ... like gray ... can be blue-gray, pink-gray, green-gray, etc. The same can be said of brown ... which to me is a warm dark orange muted color. That doesn't mean it is always! It might have green ... as in muted olive green mixed with the red/orange to create the "muddy" brown color!

Do you see these nuances of brown or gray in my painting? Do you see what many might consider unreal colors? Does the color I have chosen lend itself to a more emotional intepretation of the scene?

I would love to hear from you ... Enjoy the process I am using to learn more about color and hopefully make this into a frameable painting!