Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Daily painting Practice- Maine landscape quick study with convex lines

 Day 28 - Don't Concave In

It is 9 degrees outside and I will be going out to paint at Sears Island today. Crazy, I know but  it will be sunny.

So this morning I did this quick study for the Leslie Saeta 30 day  challenge.
Convex lines
I have been reading  John Carlson's book "Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting" as recommended by Stapleton Kearns at snow camp last week. There is a section where Carlson talks about convex lines. He says, " Try to feel that almost all natural, growing forms are convex lines rather than concave"
bulging earth forms
Carlson goes on to say that "All earth forms bulge up." This of course is not a natural law but an observation from an artist. (One of the best landscape painters of the last century).

 So, that is what I tried to keep in mind in this little study.
 
This is an old brick farmhouse about a few miles from where I live.  I could spend years painting it.
even the  grass is convex
Carlson says that concavity  creates a "hanging line" and unless there is some outstanding  artistic reason  for using it , don't, stick with convex.   Even my brushwork for the grassy slope is full of convex strokes.
Neighbors
5"x7"

This one will end up being painted on a larger scale.

1 comment:

Amy Mann said...

I heard the same advice about convex forms when I took figure drawing/anatomy in art school: there are only convex forms in the human body, no concave. Interesting to hear that it also applies to the landscape!