Thursday, May 29, 2014

An exercise in fauve-a-licious simplicity

As practice makes perfect, I cannot but make progress; 
each drawing one makes, each study one paints, 
is a step forward.

VINCENT VAN GOGH

SOLD

A Walk in the Woods © 2014 Karen Mathison Schmidt
6 x 6 inches • oil on GessobordTM
private collection • Shreveport, Louisiana

After working on my larger landscape today, I did this little one as a challenge to myself, an exercise in simplifying the landscape. I started with the photo below, which I took on a walk in the woods one morning. As you can see, I abandoned the photo pretty early in the process and went running ahead with my imagination. As a result, well, I think the composition is somewhat successful, but I don’t think I was successful in depicting the scene in my photo. 

I was, however, totally successful in having fun with it.

It will be interesting to try it again earlier in the day and see what happens.







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