Extended Landscape Painting

Exploring Concepts

Assignment 3 – Landscape
Extended Painting

For this project I decided to paint a view which opens out on to a distant field, and wanted to catch the autumn light on the distant woodland and field as well as the light striking the principal tree.  My initial sketch had the expression I was looking for and I felt it fulfilled the brief for a final painting.  I didn’t know if it would yield as an abstract but thought it might be worth a try.

     

I tried to develop the painting as a semi abstract picture but it didn’t work however I did want to develop the expressionistic effect of the brittle dying leaves, against the distant newly planted field.  I prefer less detailed foreground and the angle of the fence in the final picture but wonder if I should have developed the sunny background more, as in the sketch.  I fear it has ended up as a “something and nothing picture” but it did give me the opportunity to try out some different techniques, ie the use of oil pastels on top of acrylics.

Check and Log

·        Look back carefully at your extended project and consider if there is anything – either that you are proud of or not happy with – that you wish to discuss with your tutor.

I quite liked the way the foreground worked because it eliminated detail.  I am not so sure about the background, perhaps this should have been treated in the same obscure way. I liked the dribble painted sky. I think the subject matter could have been more interesting.  I decided on this because it was less conventional for a tree study, but may have been better off with a woodland scene.

·        How have the skills and techniques that you developed in the first part of this assignment contributed to the extended project?

Using acrylics and oils together made me think of using the oil pastels with acrylics and these have helped to create different textures. The use of mixed media is an exciting concept to pursue in future.

·        Have you managed to achieve a sense of place and atmosphere?

I would like to think that the feeling of Autumn is expressed in the painting with a sense of the Suffolk countryside: woodland, fields, sky, and the smell of decaying leaves but I suppose that is for viewers to decide.