Monday 30 July 2012

A View From Snowshill

Oil on Board, 14 x 20 inches

I painted this view from a photo I took in The Cotswolds in May, up on Snowshill above Broadway.  It was quite an interesting composition looking down over the valley, with the main interest for me being the counterchanged light on the green Sycamore tree just right of centre.  

Note the dark right side of the tree set against the light of the tree behind it, and the brilliantly lit left and top of the Sycamore set against the darker tree behind its left side.  The Hawthorn Tree in the left foreground in its full May blossom had a jaunty angle, leaning out of the picture plane, not perhaps a classical choice for a composition, but I liked the way it was kind of leaning out of the way so that the eye could see the magnificent Sycamore with its dramatic lighting, with the figure also pointing towards it.  

Close attention had to be paid to the paler and more bluish green tone of the distant field, to give it that recession and make it appear much further away than the foreground rich green Sheep meadow.  The far bank of trees were correspondingly quite blue in the hazy late afternoon light and I set them against a thin, simple strip of sky high up on the board so as not to compete with the rest of the painting.


2 comments:

  1. I love this one Peter, the light is wonderful and I am seriously envious of the way you use greens.

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    1. Thanks very much Bev. I use Sap Green as my basic green, modified with yellow, red and blue and a touch of raw umber, and white of course.

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