Miles to Go

My goodness - how I envy people who can do banks of trees and make them look varied and interesting! This is lovely watercolour - a very simple scene, but you have injected so much colour, textures, light and shade into it. Is there no end to your talents!

So simple yet so effective, and I agree with Thea about your trees, a lovely watercolour.

Less is more technique has certainly worked here. It's a simple scene yet extremely effective. The trees are lovely.

Agree with Thea and Val, seeing so much in just few banks of tree. Seok Yam, this is, indeed, an effective way to show "less is more"...

Really love those trees. The negative painting is so clever. Great colours too.

A beautiful painting, and I too, am jealous of your tree's....they are super!!

It's a joy to see, Seok...and the little farmhouse reminds me so much, with its sash windows, of the years I spent living in North America....Thank you.

PS; And the distance reference of the title takes me back too....miles and miles and miles, unlike our little island!

What a lovely watercolor Seok!! Less is more and has worked beautifully here. Absolutely delightful!

Simply beautiful.Beautifully simple !

A beautiful watercolour! Agree with all the above Seok - delightful!

This is beautiful Seok.

This one is a lovely painting but I think that in trying to paint loosely your sense of perspective slipped a little with the blue roof of the cottage,I love your painting style and I know you would prefer honesty meant kindly , At least I do because it makes me' hopefully' a better painter. Although I have probably raised the ire of all your other fans

Thank you everyone for your very kind comments! William, you are absolutely right - I definitely prefer and appreciate an honest comment, and agree with you that my perspective is off here. Actually, I am horrible at perspective and therefore would have slipped up whatever my style! But while I enjoyed the exercise, I also admit this style is not me, even though I admire greatly those who can do it so well and I love their paintings. I like detail and throwing in the kitchen sink, but also recognize that my tendency to fiddle sometimes kills a painting. In trying to restrict myself to a minimum of 2 or 3 washes here, I can see the brightness and transparency of the painting. So the final upshot is that I am still on my quest to strike a happy medium. Ping, glad you had a great time. I just remembered the Mojave stretches across miles and miles, so many deserts to visit!

This is utterly charming! Less is more certainly works well here - it looks as if it has been painted so effortlessly - what a lovely subject to find upon your travels, its just timeless isn't it.

Thank you very much, Annette! I can assure you that it was definitely not effortless! Took me 4 pieces of paper and an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out how to differentiate the various greens and simplify the painting, and even then, as William says, my perspective is still off! I am SO NOT suited to quick splashes of paint!

Thea, I forgot to mention, in case you are interested about the greens (I used this piece to experiment with the greens) - Last week, I bought a book called Loose Watercolor by Jerry McClish (right, me and loose watercolor - sounds like an oxymoron!), and I noted his use of Pthalo Blue, New Gamboge, Pthalo Green and Burnt Sienna in his palette. I substituted New Gamboge for Indian Yellow and played around with these 4 colors for this painting to create the various greens. I could definitely improve on what I've done with more practice, but I found playing with these colors helped me to achieve a wider spectrum than I usually manage.

I must look McClish up as anyone who can advise about greens is a boon. I'm going to have a go with those combinations - it is so helpful to know what colours people have used. Perhaps we should all consider putting the colours we've used in our introductory bit about each painting when we post it? Thank you so much for the info.

To be frank, I get a bit fed up with the "less is more" mantra, because I think it's in danger of turning into an inflexible rule - and sometimes, well, it just isn't! Having said which, it can work very well in paintings with plenty of tonal contrast, as you have here. Half the time, people add more and more detail to paintings because they know something isn't there, and try to provide that something with more and more touches of detail - ending in disappointment and low impact. The something missing is nearly always tonal contrast and counterchange, and fiddly bits don't compensate for it. I speak from hard experience.....

Thea, I thought the book by Jerry McClish was very helpful, as was the book by John Pike which Joe Hargreaves recommended. They were treasure troves of good, sound paintings and useful advice. Robert, I totally agree with you that less is not always more, and am gratified that at least someone else shares my opinion. I think the "less is more" approach works very well for a particular type of landscape, like the type painted by Alan Owen and David Bellamy, who both do it brilliantly. But there are certain subjects where I just prefer a more detailed look. For me, flowers, ornate buildings and animals come to mind. When I was in the States a couple of years back, I visited the Cody Museum in Wyoming, as well as the Wildlife Museum at Jackson Hole, and I had the great good fortune to view the works of Karl Rungius and Bob Kuhn, who were giants of wildlife art. They both started off with very detailed paintings, and it was only after decades of hard work and dedication that their style matured into something looser. It is my general observation that people who have that type of experience tend to produce loose paintings with substance. Many who take the loose route from the beginning do not have the depth that comes from a good artistic grounding. OK, I hope I haven't offended anyone!

A beautiful piece of work , Seok I've been looking through your portfolio I think your paintings are superb, (I'm so sorry for the late comment but I can't rush and I'm not much good with words). By the way, I think you've made a very good point in your comment above

Just to clarify I think you've made a good point in comment No20

Thanks very much, Peri. There's no need to apologise at all. There is really no time line for posting a comment, and I very much appreciate your taking the time to look through my gallery. I really enjoyed your works and look forward to seeing more.