"What are those pink flowers?" a friend from the West coast wrote.
"They're azaleas", I wrote back... but wait I thought... I don't know
if she will believe that answer. It's a good question to keep in mind
when one is attempting to paint a scene the viewer might never have
experienced. I grew up in the wide open ( but arid) spaces of the west
coast myself. A large azalea on the west coast might reach two foot
tall and three foot wide. Had I not seen it with my own eyes, I might
have suspected that the profusion of vegetation was a bit overstated
if not outright fabricated. Let me assure you, it is neither.
Small Part of Brookgreen Gardens' Pine forest in Spring |
The
sheer size of the flowering plants in Spring can be overwhelming. In
the older established gardens the azaleas can reach twenty feet, and the
flowering trees are taller.
The photo below will give you some sense of the heights... They dwarf me
CC with azaleas at Magnolia Gardens |
And they are everywhere
Magnolia Gardens path |
There are acres and acres of woodland paths like these at at Magnolia Gardens and Brookgreen Gardens
Brookgreen Gardens walkway |
Even personal gardens are a mass of blooms.
It
can all be a bit overwhelming. The sheer profusion makes it hard to
know what to focus upon, much less even get a clean photo of it..
Painting the scene becomes an exercise in deciding on what is the center
of interest, and trying to remove anything in the scene that might
distract the viewers' focus.
Brookgreen Garden's Gate |
The
photo above shows the garden gate that was the basis for the painting
above. Far from being overstated. I actually had to subdue a lot of
color and edit out many shapes to keep the painting from seeming
cluttered and even garish.
My painting of "The Garden Gate" |
Maybe
that is why so few artists tackle full blown flower filled Spring
landscapes. They require hard mental work and are very tricky to pull
off well.
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