Encouraged my tutor’s comment “How would you have done it differently with more freedom?”, I did some follow-up work on the assignment 3 painting, the landscape painting for which I chose a winter view on The Cloisters. I had several ideas what I could improve:

–        Invention with colours to get away from the dull atmosphere of a gray winter’s day
–        Reduction of detail to clear up the painting, focus on larger shapes. But retain the characteristic broken lines and shapes of the trees
–        More variation/experimentation in the application of paint – maybe trying different types of mark making or tools other than the brush
–        Experiment with tonal gradations and contrast

To support futher development of the painting, I went back to the original photos of the place and manipulated them using photoshop. My aim was to bring out more clearly those aspects I found interesting to serve as basis for new paitings. I made one version in black and white with increased contrast to make the shapes and tonal values come out clearer. I made a second version in colour with exaggerated and modified hues, as a starting point for colour inventions

I wanted to simplify shapes and obtain more intense colours, but not too much because I wanted to retain the wintery atmosphere. I built on the pallette I had developed in an earlier pastel study, where I discovered a yellow tone in the sky and purple in the dried woods.

I made two more paintings. They are more like quick sketches. The most difficult aspect was the trees before the background, and I struggled with giving them a lighter tone before a darker background. In the second painting, I tried a different approach by drawing the tree silhouettes using pen and ink over the watercolour background.

Both drawings are not worked out. I abandoned the second because it felt too repetitive drawing the tree shapes again and again, and I lost patience and interest for the topic. Basically I think there was a compositional problem. I think for watercolours, an open view with simple shapes works better. Maybe I should have left out the trees in the foreground altogether.

I agree with my tutor that I have probably learned a lot from the assignment 3 painting, despite the only moderate results. In particular, I begin to get a feeling what doesn’t work with watercolour and what kind of painting style I prefer. I will try to incorporate the other ideas on how to improve paintings in subsequent works, but for now I think it’s better to proceed to a different painting subject and free up my mind.