I'm reposting this here, as it fortuitously fit with the Inspiration Challenge and I literally posted it to image sharing a couple of hours before the launch ;)
I've had a bit more time recently to practice watercolour, with the summer holidays here in Melbourne, though managing washes at 35-40 degrees Celsius is a challenge in itself! The below is my latest. I'm reasonably pleased with the progress I'm making. I'm trying out different ways to paint eucalypts trees, which I struggle with given how sparse and full of skyholes these are. I also focussed a lot on the different shades in the water, and trying to make a rocky shoreline work without detracting from the tree as the main subject (only partially successful in my view).
The image is based on a view of Port Arthur in Tasmania, looking over the small island named the Isle of the Dead. It's a beautiful place which belies a disturbing history - first for the atrocities carried out against the Aboriginal inhabitants in the early 1800s, and then as a penal colony in the 1830s. The Isle of the Dead is so named as it served as the prison's cemetery.
Any comments welcome!
You bring back so many memories of my time in Tassie. The landscape is something else.
I love the clean lines in your painting and the water looks just as I remember it.. like the calm before a storm. And eucalyptus are just a different breed. They’re either gappy, half burnt, falling down or oddly blue. I met an oil painter many years ago, who moved from Belgium to Brisbane and he said it took him years to adapt his colour palette to Australian trees. I think we’re just special :)
And I hear you when you mention the heat and watercolour. Brisbane summers are a constant speed-painting challenge!
Hi Peter, my name is Leah from Orange NSW. I too have found gum trees difficult, especially when I want them to look like gums not other trees but I found Joe Cartwright and Cheryl Bruce, both Aussie artists, had some good tips on You Tube ... have fun, Leah
Hi there! Fellow Aussie here. My huge inexperience means I’m not in any situation to make really helpful suggestions, I’m sorry. However, I totally agree with you about our gum trees being somehow difficult to depict! A lot of them have really open canopies and this somehow seems to make them more difficult to paint! Also, a lot of them have really light coloured, very smooth bark (plus or minus blotches) or even bright orange bark … overall, not at all like the trees depicted in most landscapes from overseas. This makes learning to paint them really hard, I think.
I, too, have visited Port Arthur - many years ago, now. I think you have captured the stillness of the place really well in your painting. I love the way you’ve done the water. Did you consider adding the suggestion of just a few small twigs/branches to the closest low lying scrub and/or a couple of very small and dark, fine grass flicks? It just occurred to me that perhaps a touch of variation in brush strokes and a touch of very dark value (and maybe warmer) paint in that area might be something I would try out … but it might be something that you really don’t want do, which is completely valid! As I said, I really don’t know what I’m doing, so feel free to totally ignore anything I suggest!
Happy painting to you!
PS: Amen to the difficulties of managing the amount of water in washes in Australian Summer!!!
PPS: it just occurred to me that maybe a larger, more definite shadow for your tree might make a difference…or maybe it wouldn’t! I don’t know - but maybe someone else will make more helpful suggestions than I am capable of …