DIGITAL ISSUE EXTRA CONTENT
Trees feature so often in landscape paintings, but it took me a long while to learn how to tackle them satisfactorily. In this article, I want to share my experience of painting background leafy trees - those in the middle distance and beyond, in the context of a landscape painting. They have a visual impact secondary to the main subject, but they play supportive roles that arecomposition, and then discuss different ways to paint them to fulfil their role. If you look at (above), the darker toned band of fir trees across the picture clearly defines and pushes forward the building and the foreground trees, by dint of the tonal contrast. The middle-distance trees in (right) help to define the boatyard buildings and the tops of the boats in the foreground. They also link the buildings on the left to the other buildings in the middle, as well as linking the row of dinghies on the right. These background trees therefore play a significant role in binding the various element of the picture together. Another good example of linkage is shown later in this article. The grey waves of pine link the left and right halves of the picture. Without them, there would be a void in the middle of the composition. Indirectly, the heights of the background trees can provide a guide to the height of the buildings, other structures and even figures in the foreground.
