Exploring Concepts
Assignment 3 – Landscape
I selected two of the sketches I did on a recent holiday to Spain, and it was those recollections which influenced the final painting. Two tree studies were included as well as a sky study. I enjoyed this project more than I thought I would. Mindful of the difficulties I have experienced with packages, I made a conscious effort not to use canvas boards. I applied gesso to A2 cartridge paper which was rather lightweight, and it appears to have worked.
I have been reading about the British Impressionists and their early inspiration taken from Bastien-Lepage and people like Guthrie, William Stott of Oldham, George Clausen and Frank Bramley all tended to use the square brush across the form technique,which was regarded as "Naturalism" although they did develop their technique further into what is known as British Impressionism.
I have used the square brush on the mountains in the background. However, when it came to the foreground I felt I needed a flat foreground (in view of the busy textural quality of the background). The rocks would also provide quite a lot of texture. Once in this mode my trees became stylized in an almost Gauguin style. I was quite pleased with the result, more so than much of my other landscape work. I felt the colour scheme also worked well with a strong blue on the right off-setting the pale ochre yellow. The orange/red roofs are also complimented by the olive greens. I think the balance is about right in terms of colour and texture. The composition has repetition and complementary mass elements as well as a fairly strong ‘A’ triangular arrangement echoed in the mountain peaks. For me it was a fairly loose piece of work, something I find difficult.
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