Monday, August 11, 2008

Reforestation II Painting

Sorry...This one looks out of focus, but since..I had nothing meaningful to say I decided to upload a painting. This is a 16x20 follow-up painting of Reforestation I. Reforestation I is very similar but much larger at approximately 44x47. This is a painting of the acreage between our house and my neighbor Sam's. Yes I am a bit of an old hippy and nature nut and If you haven't guessed, I like trees. We have preserved a little bit of forest here along with our dear friends and neighbors who own 24 acres of woods and meadow. The irony is that I visited an allergist for the first time last week and found that I am highly allergic to the trees around here...oak, hickory and birch. (I think I need to move back to South Jersey and paint pine trees). Note the little Charlie Brown pine in this landscape.

I enjoy painting the landscape around the property in fall, winter and spring but in the summer it is too green. I have difficulty differentiating between the greens when I paint and everything tends to appear too similar. I think the trouble is that I get bored with green. I had to get a different shade of green for my paintings of Ireland! I felt that there was quite a "variety" of greens there where our midsummer green tends to be a warm sap green which I mix with various colors to get a range. I see a lot more color in the fall and even in the winter. This is a winter scape. Sam's pond was also a winter scape.

On Friday I set up my easel outside and attempted to paint the sunflowers in the garden. I got a bit frustrated with the greenery in the background. The sunflowers are beginning to wilt and fade but the seed clusters are ripening and I find them quite expressive. Hopefully I will resolve my green issues and upload a work in progress soon.

Oh, one complication...Daughter A took the camera and two memory cards to Otakon. We had to order two more. She promised I could have some pictures to share with my blogging friends.

2 comments:

dive said...

Hee hee. I LOVE the cute little Charlie Brown pine!
And those colours just leap out and hit you right in the eye. Glorious, Neetzy!

I remember doing colour studies of woodland. It all looks "green" until you try to paint it and then suddenly the infinite variety of colour trapped inside the word "green" is overwhelming.

neetzy said...

Dive,
Green can just swallow you up a bit! Once September hits, the leaves start changing a little. I can handle green with a little gold.