Limited Palette (experiment)

Acrylic on 40x30 cm canvas. This was done as a limited palette experiment, the colours used were White, Neutral Grey, Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Umber. I think that I learnt a lot from doing this so as an experiment I would have to say that it was a success. As a painting, maybe not so much.

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Comment by Stephen Street on April 12, 2016 at 20:06: Anna, thanks for your wonderful suggestions, I’ll have a go at working them through and see what the end result is. You have secured a stay of execution for this small painting and maybe a complete pardon.

As for keeping my paintings; I have limited storage space available so I have to accept that I can’t keep everything. It isn’t a problem at the moment as I only have a few paintings to keep, but it will be as I complete more paintings. At which point this one may well end up walking the plank anyway.

Comment by Ana Murza on April 11, 2016 at 13:51: Hi Stephen, before you move on, lets try to see what can be done to this beautiful piece.

Throwing it out, is out of question. Do you understand? I have lots of "paintings" unfinished staked away for years now, I revisit them from time to time, some I've finished others will stay as they are just to compare them with what I can do now. I still have a lot to learn, I look at them as they are my "painting footsteps".

Now, I wish I would have more knowledge painting wise, therefore I only give you ideas at my level. Take them if they apply to your taste and if not discard them.

I like the right side of the painting, in my eyes is perfect. The edge of the bushes on the ground is undulating, and full of mystery as the viewer wants to know what is in those nooks or little entrances. The ground is slightly uneven which is good. The right side is very inviting full of melody.

The left side of the painting is opposite, is stiff, the ground edge of the forest is straight therefore the eyes are rushing into the middle of the filed which happened to be the middle of the painting as well. Then the left side creates unbalance in the painting by being to dark where on the other side every thing is light and soft.

Make some little "S" shapes or some indents to brake that straight line at the bottom of the pine trees, to stop the eye run into the scene, and add some melody in the some time.

Work on the shape of the front trees, and look at them like one single big shape. The trees are more credible when they have oval shape. So make one big oval shape for both of them, and than work the different colour inside i.e. pink and white, keep them oval. If you cut the lateral edges is easy to achieve that ( you know that).

You should grey the pine tree in the middle of the field and push it back a little by adding some white at the bottom. Do NOT cover the passage , that is beautiful and takes you into wonderland.

You can saturate the bottom of front tree on the right, and can put one or two astray pain trees (middle value, saturation) behind it, so you have a bit more contrast in the middle ground.

You can also have some spaces between the branches of the front trees, not too many and especially towards the edges as you can pick through them and see the pine trees.

And last, you can try to crop the bottom of the painting and see the impression you'll have with out that so much white foreground. You can do all this on your computer and decide if it's better or if you like it.

Stephen, do not through away this painting before you try it. It will be a worthy experience. Have a nice day!

Comment by Stephen Street on April 11, 2016 at 1:03: Ana, you are spot on with your observations and thanks for posting them. The pine trees did end abruptly at the edge of an open area and I am at a bit of a loss what to do about it. I tried modifying the tree shapes to prevent the foreground trees from being totally enclosed by them, but also wanted to preserve the sense of space off in the distance. I’ll probably play around with it further before I make my final decision as to whether I should archive this painting or simply trash it and move on.

Comment by Ana Murza on April 10, 2016 at 12:14: I like it, is so calm and the blending is the sky is pretty good. The only thins which bothers me a bit is the edge of the pine trees that kind of stops all of the sudden in middle of the painting and another one is the edge of the white tree which mirror the pine tree edge.