October Oak 12 x 12 Plein Air watercolor

October Oak 12 x 12

I ran out of Q Burnt Orange while painting this one.
The importance of the bits of blue green ( I used manganese blue hue and cobalt turquoise for the blue green color patches.) to contrast with the warm autumn colors is what I was concerned with colorwise .
The distance away I was standing was important , it allowed me to see the larger shapes and not try to paint every leaf.

"Summer Oak"

Summer Oak 10 x 12
Painted at high noon, on a hot day this summer, the overhead light created a shimmer of deep red orange against the dark greens. This is what I love about plein air, these are color choices I never would have made if I weren't outside. Usually midday light is harsh, but I like it here. Sold to an arborist, perfect!

Plein Air Watercolor "Golden Oak"

Golden Oak 14 x 14
You've probably noticed I am pulling back from my usual bright colors as I am learning about what makes a good tree portrait. The nature of depicting trees is that what you choose to paint and what you choose to leave in really makes or breaks a painting. The leaves make it very busy if you don't figure out how to simplify them.One idea that has helped me is to think of the trees in terms of the gesture they make with the trunks and branches. What is it doing? This was sort of implied in my last post where I titled the painting " Tree Pose".

This oak was leaning over the hill and I liked how the branches to the right were reaching down. This was also less than five miles from my house, I am painting very locally this fall.

Update :Katherine Tyrrell did a nice write up about this painting on her blog Art of the Landscape". She's writing a series on Autumn Paintings that is a great primer on how to paint trees. I've been following it and enjoying it very much. http://art-landscape.blogspot.com/2011/11/golden-oak-autumn-landscape-7.html

Plein Air Watercolor "Tree Pose"

Tree Pose 12 x 16
One of my goals is to get more skilled at painting oak trees both for my panoramic paintings and because this fall I have been studying the way the different oaks change in the fall. So I've started a series of tree portraits to get to know them.
There are valley oaks, coastal oaks, hillside oaks  golden oaks and blue oaks, I don't know much about botany, but this is how I think of them. This oak is isolated on a patch of ranchland near where I live and reminded me of the yoga pose because of it's balanced masses and outstretched branches.