Standout

Now that I'm in the mode of reworking some of my plein air paintings (or repainting them), time for another one. During my landscape workshop that I took with Karen Winslow (Winslow Art Studio, Cambridge, Vermont), I was working on small thumbnail paintings to just get the basic techniques down.

One of the thumbnail that I did on a foggy morning was this one. The thumbnail was a 4" x 5" painting where I was just working on getting the mountains in the background to recede and determine how to paint the tree with morning light.

In the workshop, I made the mistake of rimming the entire tree with light. This is called "Chasing the light". Rather, by massing quickly, define the light direction and what is highlighted. Then, follow that pattern. Don't change it.

Overall, pretty pleased with this painting. The colors/values seem to hold together pretty well (in my opinion).