Winter trees near the Avon, Saltford.

Just past the sewage works – thankfully – I get to one of my favourite spots.  It’s a place I go every year, and I’d like to run a workshop here one day, based on trees.  There are great examples of huge old pollarded willows (I think), amongst other types, set alongside a meadow and the river Avon between Bristol and Bath.

The trees are revealed at best in winter or early Spring, before new leaves begin to obscure the views.  This new painting was inspired by my latest walk along the river a couple of weeks ago.  It was sunny, which was obvious being there, but I’ve in fact enhanced the light and shade from how it came across in my photographs. The sun is so low and relatively weak at this time of year, and that tall hedge off to the right basically put the entire field into shade, so in the photos it is hard to tell if it was sunny or not.

I often leave pure white paper in the top corner nearest the direction of sun to help give an idea of its glare.  Another thing this painting made me think about is something I’ve been telling myself for a long time:  ‘Don’t be afraid of neutrals’.  

In reality often we’ll observe greys, but we are told things like ‘there is always colour in greys if you look for it’.  And often we enhance colours (such as the blue of the faint distance hillside in this, and indeed the blue in the dark shadows on the main tree).  But at the same time, this wouldn’t count at all if it weren’t set amongst comparatively neutral or ‘grey’ colours.  And in truth there are many instances when I see totally neutral colours in nature.  The trunk of a willow tree, for example, can appear quite pink or maroon in a certain light, and at other times quite Raw Umber.  Then again, not surprisingly it can also appear to be midway between the two.  Neutral greys exist when there is a perfect mix of two opposing (on the colour wheel) colours, and of course this can happen in reality.  I think painting it can make us afraid that we’ll be painting ‘mud’.  But greys certainly won’t look muddy, if they are painted in the normal confident and direct way that any other colour is painted.  It is just another colour, but it can be a  psychological barrier.  When I see a totally neutral grey I’ll happily paint it if it will work for a painting.  It will offset any brighter colours and if almost a whole painting is fairly neutral but one bit it relatively bright then that part will catch the eye and have more ‘meaning’ than if the greys weren’t there.
At this time of year there are dead plants on the ground from last summer’s growth, some of which has a local colour of virtually white.  Choosing a colour for depicting this in, in sunlight and shade can be challenging, even if your concern is simply to portray it exactly as you perceive it.  But when it comes to colour choices, at the end of the day what counts to me is that they need to work relative to each other within the context of the painting only.  

I’m currently working on an article for Leisure Painter which tackles the challenge of Spring Greens.  Here is a painting of this same area, but depicting that bright new growth of May.  As I perceive it in reality this colour is often a very ‘lime’ green, but to me that colour just doesn’t look good in paint unless used sparingly and set against some quite neutral mixes which will make my version of the ‘lime’ seem more lime than it really is! (Click to enlarge, then page back to return.)

Pollard by the Avon in May

And here is a plein air version done close by, at the time when new growth is just beginning to burst out – my favourite time.

Backlit pollard willow, April.

Yet another similar view below.   I filmed the painting of this one, and it can be seen as a time-lapse video here:https://vimeo.com/188813957

Imperial pollard willow, early Spring

And here is a photo of just some of these trees from my last visit:

Finally, an article I wrote for Paint & Draw magazine featuring a step-by-step beach scene has now been put online, and can be found here:
http://www.creativebloq.com/how-to/how-to-create-a-beautiful-watercolour-landscape-painting