I started this task based on the two landscape sketches I made recently while in Crestwood, a little town close to New York. It is a view over a water basin of the Bronx river which I painted while sitting on a huge fallen tree. A large branch of the tree formed an arc over the water, and there was a complex visual pattern of dark branches and their reflexions on the water.

On the spot I first made a watercolour sketch of the scene (A4) and then a pencil drawing of the tree in my brown square sketchbook (21 x 22 cm), and also took some pictures for later reference. I chose one of them for this exercise on coloured grounds.

I started with another watercolour sketch on white paper and then made a tonal study in grey pastels to help me sorting out colours, the lighter and darker tones and also the various textured areas.

Then I made two paintings on coloured ground. The first was on green, the second on light brown wash in the same A4 watercolour sketchbook. I employed some white gouache for the lightest areas and switched to a flat brush for the trees in the second painting.

While painting, I had some trouble with my choice of subject, because I found it too loaded with details and lacking an open view. I found it difficult to paint smaller elements or the narrow, lengthy shapes of reflecting areas on the water. These areas are not very recognizable in the paintings. I think the depiction of foliage, reflection, tree in the foreground become better over the paintings of the series. If I were to do it again, I think I’d choose a more open view and reduce the amount of details included in the painting.

Guided reflections

Which is the most successful landscape study and why?

I think the final one is the most successful, because this is where I achieved a more skillful depiction of the elements in the view, and also because the background colour (brown) blends into the painting without looking strange.

Is the atmoshpere different in any of the pictures? If so, say why you think this is.

Yes, I think the painting on the green paper has a bit of twilight appeal, while the final (on brown) looks bit sad. The most friendly atmosphere is probably in the paintings on white ground, because the colours look brightest.

What problems did the tinted papers present?

The tinted papers changed the colour hues and toned down the entire scene. One of the challenges was to brighten this up a bit and not produce a very dark painting, or an effect of all mudded colours. I think the painting on green paper looks quite artificial, probably because of the blueish green I used. The brown paper blended more naturally with the colours I added on top.

Were there ways in which the tinted papers helped you to find your landscape colours more easily?

Maybe I did not choose the best subject for this exercise, because my landscape was so dominated by green tones and there were not many other colours. I don’t think the tinted colours were particularly helpful for my colour choices.

How important to your paintings were the gouache and/or oil pastels?

I used less gouache than in the earlier two subjects (shoes and still life), and no oil pastels. I found my background colours relatively light so less need to brighten up larger areas with gouache. Maybe I could have included more light in the foliage of the trees on the opposite side of the water basin. It did not occur to me to use oil pastels here. Maybe they’d have worked for the non-reflective areas on the water surface.

Can you see how you might exploit some of these approaches in the future?

I did not feel very comfortable with the tinted grounds nor with the additional media. Difficulties with watercolour medium and the composition were too dominant. If I were to do it again, I’d prefer working on a larger scale and I’d choose a different composition with a more open view.

My aim for this course was to learn painting with watercolours and currently I don’t feel that my skills are very good. I feel I’d still have to do simple paintings to become better with the medium, before switching to experimental stuff. I enjoy experimenting but at this point I feel it’s a distraction from what I set out to learn. Maybe for me it would be better to take some time off and simply paint with watercolours, then come back to the experimental approaches. As this is not possible time-wise, I’ll see where this gets me. Currently my attempts with tinted papers and other media feel a bit half-hearted.