Exploring a Landscape Subject

Early on in my painting journey, I would never consider painting a subject more than once. But these days I spend quite a bit of time exploring multiple studies of a particular subject. Since I’m not trying to replicate my subject, I’m instead searching for a way to visually interpret what's special about it. And sometimes it takes some searching to find how I want to do that.

Black Butte Ranch Aspens, 8x10, oil

I painted “Black Butte Ranch Aspens” on location recently. Although there was beautiful subject matter everywhere I looked, I wanted to focus on the brilliant light on the sides of the Aspen trees. I wasn’t too sure about the composition I was attempting as I was painting it—with the trees on the right ending almost at the center—but I wanted to paint just a portion of the tree mass since I knew the light would change quickly, and I took my best shot at this type of composition.

Last Glimpse of Autumn, 12x16, pastel

Back in the studio, I wanted to include more of the tree mass in the composition, so I backed up my view, which is more like how I photographed this spot.

reference photo

After looking at the 12x16 version, I was okay with it, but I didn’t think it captured the light on the Aspen tree trunks like I had wanted. It seemed that the light and shadow on the foreground grass had stolen some attention from the tree trunks.  So I decided to zoom back in on the composition—not as much as the plein air study, but a little closer so that it better featured the light on the trunk trunks. I also pulled the base of the trees down to lengthen the tree trunks, and created more “breathing space” in the sky on the left between the tree foliage at the top and the distant mountain by reducing the size of the mountain. 

In all three versions I exaggerated the size of the mountain to create additional depth. The mountain is indeed there in the photo, but barely visible.  When I was there painting my plein air study, I noticed that the mountain was higher further to the left of the view I was painting, and I loved the contrast against the other elements in the landscape, so I moved it into my composition.

Autumn's Fade at Black Butte Ranch, pastel, 14x18

I’ll look at my third version for a while and decide if I might want to explore it some more in oil. I find that moving back and forth between oil and pastel helps keep the exploring process interesting!

Stay tuned for a little special surprise I have planned for my blog readers on Saturday, November 26th ... Small Business Saturday!

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS;

Bend, OR - 3-day PASTEL/OIL workshop

January 21, 22 &23, 2017 (Sat/Sun/Mon)

SageBrushers Art Society

117 SW Roosevelt Ave., Bend, OR  97702

www.sagebrushersartofbend.com

Contact: Barbara Jaenicke, barbarajaenicke@msn.com

$375

Redondo Beach, CA - 3-day PASTEL workshop

April 20, 21 & 22, 2017 

Pastel Society of Southern California

www.pastelsocal.com

Contact: Arturo Fribourg, Fribourgarch@aol.com

$350 (tentative price, may change slightly)

San Diego, CA - Plein Air Convention

April 24 - 28, 2017

Faculty/Pastel demonstrator

Exact day/time of demo TDB. Must be registered for convention to attend.

www.pleinairconvention.com

Oregon City, OR - 3-day PASTEL/OIL workshop

May 19, 20 & 21, 2017 (Fri/Sat/Sun), with a "meet & greet" Thursday evening before the workshop

Carrie Moore Studios, Oregon City, OR

www.carriemoorestudios.com

Contact: Carrie Moore, carriemoorestudios5@gmail.com, 503-866-5507

$400

For full schedule, go to www.barbarajaenicke.com.