Pear Park

Pear Park by Sharon Repple 12 x 24 x 1 1/2 acrylic One of my favorite subjects are trees with back lighting. This painting is from a scene in the park across the road from us. Beautiful paths through natural areas. I tried using some broken color by adding deep purple in the shadows and blues in the road.

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Comment by Sharon Repple on May 11, 2014 at 10:22: Ann, really appreciate your comment. I may have over tweaked it, still looking at it and trying to decide if it is finished. I think I'll go back to the park this evening and check out the long shadows again and light.

Comment by Ann Turner on May 10, 2014 at 11:36: Sharon there are lots of great things about this painting. And as stated here already a few tweeks will polish it up and you will have a masterpiece. I am looking forward to seeing the revisions.

Comment by Sharon Repple on May 10, 2014 at 9:36: Thanks Michael, these are great suggestions. Can't wait to get started, I'll re-post when I finish. Thank you so much for taking the time to type these out, hope I can accomplish the changes. Always learning!

Comment by Michael J. Severin on May 10, 2014 at 2:40: Hi Sharon. If you darken the foreground road, that means that you will not have the tree shadow .because the whole foreground will be in shadow ...and that is okay ...in fact, that is what I would suggest you do. You can add some dappled light for interest. What colors? ..mmmm ....a darker and cooler version of your road colors ..maybe about the same value as your tree shadow (which will now be the edge of your foreground shadow), but a little lighter value then your foreground grasses. So why would the value of the shadowed road be lighter then the grasses? ...that is because the grassy area absorbs light and does not reflect back, the road (dirt) reflects more light and thus will be a little higher in value (in the dark family though) Begin the shadow on the foreground road with a warm/dark value ...then add cool notes on top (reflected skylight and surrounding greens). Now, here is an important thing: your sun is facing us head on, but your shadow is moving left to right ...I would strongly suggest that when you paint the dappled light, you angle them toward the sun ...that will also help in your compositional movement into the painting. The last thing to do: take a gob of sunlight color and one stroke scumble the light on the road as it makes the turn into the distance ...I know you already did it, but it could be much brighter and it will sparkle like a diamond!! ..when you do this, whittle into the foliage on the left a little more (just below the sun) ..really punch it there!!! Take a look at my painting "Sunset at Melones" to get an idea how to warm the tree trunks. Geez, I hope all this made sense Sharon? :)

Comment by Sharon Repple on May 10, 2014 at 1:27: Keep on pickin' Michael, one of the reasons I post here is because I know that you will be honest with me about changes needed but will also give me ways to correct my mistakes. I'll make changes to tree trunks and cool down the shadow. I think I may just darken the foreground road and let the focus be on the light area above. One of the reasons I picked this scene was the light breaking through the trees creating spotlight of light on some of the plants. I darkened foreground but you are right that it still looks light. What colors would you suggest to darken road? Thanks again for your help and I'm glad that you like the way I painted the foliage.

Comment by Michael J. Severin on May 9, 2014 at 17:03: Nice work Sharon. I like the way the sun dissolves the tree foliage with its golden light. Very nice gradation on the road. Two things you might want to think about: In a backlit situation, where the light is refracting around the tree, the tree trunk of the 2 large foreground trees would be a warm dark ..your shadow across the road would be cool. Actually, the shadow and tree trunk tones should be reversed. Also, there is a light family and a dark family ...and they shall not meet.. ..your foreground grass is in the dark family and your road is in the light family ..the foreground grass would be in the light family also. How do I know the foreground grass is in the dark family? ...because it is the same value as the foreground tree in backlit shadow ...which is also in the dark family. Sharon, keep your light and dark families separate. Sorry Sharon, I seem to ALWAYS be picking on you. :(

Comment by Silvana M Albano on May 9, 2014 at 13:00: Sahron! This is beautiful, calm and inviting! It's time to go for a walk!!!!! :) what a great path you've got near your home!!