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Oil on Canvas Landscape Retouch - Critique Please!
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Message
Posted
Hello! I finished this landscape oil painting last summer. Since then, I've decided I can't live with the fat-bottomed trees in the foreground and will fix them. Since I am going to the effort of removing the varnish to adjust the painting, I thought it would be a good idea to get another perspective. I'd very much appreciate any feedback you might have to share. Even if you think it's nitpicking, I would love to hear it. Thank you for your time and consideration!
Edited
by Krislyn Dillard
Posted
There we are the correct way up . I don’t paint in oils so can’t comment on the specifics of removing it and adding a different trunk at the base . Working in watercolour I would put some thicker higher foliage at the base to cover it , don’t know if you can do this without removing the varnish etc . It a very nice painting, good luck with your project.
Posted
Is it the fat bottomed trees you wish comments on? In my opinion, I could live with them being that size/width...I think they reinforce the upwards perspective and therefore the feel of how tall they are and that we as viewer are low, looking up. However, that said, they are rather demanding, so perhaps some elements in front of them to break them up a little (not hide those parts) would knock back their attention demanding presence somewhat (e.g. tall grasses, small bushes etc). Do not obscure them though, I'm talking about a subtle break up of the trunk/ground junction.
Are you open to other thoughts?...the rocky water line area on the left side is attention grabbing, partially due to the values and colours, and that's fine, but I find the regularity of them hints at an artificial/human-laid landscape. I know geologically what you are showing could certainly be possible in nature, but if you are wanting to portray something quite natural, my suggestion would be to consider a treatment less formal looking.
Hope that helps
Posted
Presuming you uploaded it from an Ipad or Smartphone - these depend on your holding the image the right way up - or you'll get them upside down, sideways on, or generally skew-whiff: I suspect I'm going to have similar problems when I use my Ipad.
Anyway - thank to Paul for correcting it. Now then - I would slim down those trees on the left: they are rather thick at the base. I don't think this is a major thing - but I'm sure it would make a beneficial difference.
Posted
Looks better again cutting out your easel etc!
The two trees don’t offend me but as Gerry has suggested the colourful bank below them is a little overpowering. I have no way of knowing if those colours were there as you have painted them?
However it’s a pleasing and very good painting and I can’t imagine the effort of removing the varnish and changing the painting is worth it.
I would live with it and learn to like it. Edited
by Tessa Gwynne
Posted
I’m not overly keen on the thick trunks, albeit I think that there are other more important issues here…
Namely, and has already been mentioned, the left bank has little or no natural character!
Break that up a bit and lose some of that colour.
The art of good composition is to focus the viewer’s eye to an interesting focal point - what we have here is a band of more powerful colour the length of the left bank… it’s overpowering and immediately obvious and distracting, or it was to me anyway.
Knock it back considerably (at least half way), on the left side, leaving that already existing brighter portion to act as your focal point, being nearer to the centre of the painting.
A touch of similar colour could be added carefully to the RH trunk as a highlight, just a hint and not all the way up the trunk…
I could go on, but I’ll leave it there for now, but there are some rather good passages of competent painting in much of this work.
Edited
by Alan Bickley
Posted
There's a lot to be said for starting a new painting rather than re-shaping this one to the extent recommended - that left bank does dominate, the snag is that if major changes are made to it, there will be consequential changes needed elsewhere in the picture; on further reflection, I think I'd retain this one for the lessons it offers, and keep on searching for what you want to achieve through another stab at it; the skills needed are quite obviously there.
Otherwise - if you're determined to modify this one - then take Alan's advice; and Gerry's (which I hadn't read properly) and Tessa's: it's valuable!
Posted
Good point there Robert!
Starting afresh would probably be the way to go for me also - I’d be looking at three hours or so on a new and gessoed support to complete a new one, (albeit I do work fast, but time is irrelevant), and it is time consuming to remove old varnish… and a slow, laborious process!
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