63rd Painting: Landscape #2

Please see below for my post

Hi Guys,

This is a copy of a painting. I had a pile of paint waiting to be thrown out so that I could start on my next portrait. Instead I decided, I could just paint a small painting. I made a lot of modification to the original, so it is super simplified... . Anyway this is just a prep for the plein air that I would embark on soon (hmmmm, soon is such a nice word, I don't have to commit... ).

Please provide your feedback, (One lesson for me is that I will not use Filbert for landscape, It leaves a crescent look when I stop abruptly which doesn't look cool I will be using Flats and Brights going forward, I like the square look).

Size: 5"x7"
Time: 1hour.

I like the foreground water reflection. Nice touch. A 5 x 7 does not give you a lot of room to maneuver, but the clouds are good, they intersperse well with the sky. All this in 1 hour!

Thanks Alan, but you did not tell me what you would fix in the painting? I would definetly fix the tress.

Yes! 5x7 are hard to do, I agree.

Thanks

Faisal

OK, my thoughts on this are that it's really good for such a small painting - the smaller the painting, generally the harder it is to paint. The sky and the clouds are good and I too like the water in the foreground.

I see several things that go against all the art "rules" I've been taught but then, some rules are meant to be broken.

The number one thing that bothers me is that everything is really too centered and too symmetrical. Helen Van Wyc says NEVER to center things but I don't really hold with that - sometimes you can center things and have them look ok. But even when you go out painting en plein aire, you'll be in charge of the composition and you might want to remember the Rule of Thirds (http://painting.about.com/od/composition/ss/art-composition-rules.htm) or the Golden Mean which simply state that objects in your painting should go into an area off-center. There's also a "rule" about only having odd numbered objects. It's better to have 3 of something instead of 2 and that kind of thing. This sort of thing is desirable because people like order and symmetry and painting things a little off center and not symmetrical catches attention & causes viewers to study the painting a little more. There are also other factors such a where your lights and darks are, shapes, etc. that determine a good composition.

Another thing that bothers me is lack of real texture. And when I say "texture" I don't necessarily mean physical texture; I mean the illusion of texture. In this painting, the grassy areas are too much the same color in each area, too smooth looking. Even though they are distant and would be more indistinct, they would still show a bit more variation in color at the distance they're at.

To me, the trees are just about the best part of the painting. You've varied the heights and left "sky holes" and the color is varied pretty well. The only thing about the trees is the two areas in the center and to the viewer's right where the dark at the bottom just ends abruptly. That could be your filbert brush but you've done an excellent job with blending out the shadows on that group of trees on the viewer's left.

To be honest, this is my least favorite painting of yours so far. I know you have excellent skills and have to think that you were just in a hurry or not liking what you were doing or something as it just doesn't feel finished. It doesn't feel like YOU painted it.

Hope I wasn't too harsh. I don't intend to be but do want you to carry all those wonderful skills of yours into your landscape paintings.

PS - what happened to our reply windows?!!!!!! I hate these new ones!

Hi Jan,

Wow!... this is an awesome feedback. I really need this... All your feedback has helped me grow. I appreciate you not holding back.

Thanks

Faisal

Jan really summed it up well. I hesitated to say anything because you said this was just a quick painting to in preparation for your eventual plein air.

You might want to do several small version of this taking in what Jan talked about to help in planning of composition, perspective and gradation of colors. That way, when you do the real one, you have worked many of the kinks out.

Jan, I don't know what happened to the reply window, but there seems to be a fluctuation. On thing I did find, is do not edit your post. You lose all the options at the tp when you do that. Weird!!

Yes! It was done in a hurry. I am familiar with most of the arts do's and don'ts but application is a totally different thing. It is like riding a bike,... you are told about pedalling, balancing and if you understand physics you know that conservation of angular momentum helps you with balancing etc. But until you do it all the theory is useless.

It is absolutely great how you guys have helped me through out my journey. It has made me look at things that I knew about, but was just not seeing it in my painting. So please don't hesitate, I want to grow and the only way to do that is to be honest with oneself...

Thank you all.

Faisal