Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Color and form in landscape



For the self-taught novice landscape artist like me, the wealth of color and form in a scene can be quite overwhelming. In the beginning, I was strongly tempted to depict every aspect of the picture, paint every leaf on a tree, or accurately note each blade of grass! Now I constantly remind myself to focus on the key elements, simplify the composition and say the fewest possible things in the finished picture. Only by doing so can I hope to fully convey the impact of the scene that inspired the painting. Playing with abstract compositions has helped loosen my style to where I am no longer as scared of the first brushstroke. Now I can abstract the essence of a scene to build the painting.

Michigan Summer, Acrylic on canvas board, 12"X16", $95 (Unframed)

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for visiting my blog. I really like what you say about abstracting the scene. It's much easier to get caught up in details -- harder to be loose, but worth it in the end. I like this piece a lot!

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  2. Atul,

    I also wish to thank you for visiting my blog. I do like your work. Be very interested in learning more about how you do your paintings, insights, etc.

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  3. Atul, thank you for visiting my blog and your comments! I very much enjoyed looking at your artwork and your explanations. I really love the abstracts that you've done especially.

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  4. i like yot style of landscape painting a lot!
    I tried abstracts and keep on having a go but always see a picture as basicly I am a landscape painter.
    Keeping a blog helps you to focus as well as meeting new peopleon line
    Chris

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  5. This landscape is truly lovely! I agree that it can be so much more difficult to paint landscapes in a loose, impressionistic sense as you have done. But you did amazing and it shows that it is well worth the effort! Thank you for viewing my blog and commenting! I am loving creating abstracts at the moment, though I have more failures than I do successes, abstracts are certainly more difficult than the average non-artsy person may think! It's so much more than just slapping the paint on the canvas! Best wishes and goodluck!

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