Tree Study

This oil sketch features a solitary tree with fall foliage

A small painting from the early fall at Ebenezer Church Rd just north of Bloomfield, VA.  What drew me to paint the tree were the shadows that the branches were casting on the trunk.

I worked in an impressionistic style to prevent the foliage from looking overworked, although the trunk required a lot of going back and forth with a painting knife to get the right effect. I tried to suppress the greens as much as possible relying instead on yellows and blues in the canopy to convey some sense of optical mixing. 

Oil on linen 12"x12"


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