…. composition exercise conclusion
February 27, 2016
Results of ‘composition exercise 1’: dividing a landscape into thirds, placing visual interest at each intersectional point….
Results of ‘composition exercise 2’:
and 3:
bringing us to 4:
It has taken a long spell of waffling over what to do about being less than pleased with the finished piece. The snowy fields seemed to extend themselves too far down, without enough visual interest to hold a viewer’s attention. And then I gave into the temptation/artistic trap I almost always seem to fall into, which is going one step too far by defining open field with regimented rows of corn which wind up being so monotonous, the fence posts going the opposite direction only add yet more visual predictability and kill whatever freshness the piece had going for it.
….so the only satisfactory outcome was to crop the painting and salvage what could be salvaged.
It is a very small painting, about 6″ x 12″, and has at least enough mood still going on to make it only just worth framing.
As an exercise, however, it was more than useful, and confirmed satisfactorily that placing interest at intersectional points within a composition divided into thirds works (sans rows of corn, that is), does hold one’s attention, and lends a feeling of balance.
…. Robin miniature 2
February 12, 2016
It has been an unsettlingly warm Winter here in interior British Columbia, with Spring bulbs actually starting to poke up through the ground. Unsettling, because being only mid-Winter, we might well suddenly get one of those Arctic inflows and see temps plunge to -20C, which would effectively ruin what shouldn’t have already begun sprouting, including fruit trees.
It wouldn’t be surprising at all to actually see Robins returning in February, when their normal return isn’t until mid-March. Being such avid worm-hunters, I have wondered at their early returns here, particularly as to what they find to eat. The answer is the Mountain Ash berry and other lingering berries. The danger, apparently, is eating ones which have fermented, thereby becoming naturally alcoholic and responsible for killing birds who eat too many.
This miniature is of the British/European Robin, which doesn’t reside in Canada. But English Robin miniatures are snapped up in our Gallery simply because they have established such a rich literary following, and also appeal to Canadian emigres.
The difficulty painting a bird the painter has never seen–and therefore isn’t familiar with–means it may not be true to how the bird actually looks. However, this particular bird has so frequently been depicted in book illustrations and greeting cards, that its persona lives beyond its ‘real life’ comings and goings. So here in Canada, getting the English Robin ‘right’ isn’t as stringent a matter as getting the Canadian Robin right–a bird everyone is familiar with, and therefore has to be flawlessly rendered.
They seem so very sweet.
…. belated draw a bird day
February 9, 2016
It has become ‘belated everything’ for me lately…so why not this as well.
2.5″ x 3.75″ watercolour on Arches Hot Press 140#
We’ve come to know this as the English Robin (at least here in Canada), though I see it referred to elsewhere as the European Robin (which of course no Brit would ever go for).
Here are some (possibly) little-known tidbits about it: “. . . The distinctive orange breast of both sexes contributed to the European robin’s original name of redbreast (orange as the name of a colour was unknown in English until the sixteenth century, by which time the fruit of that name had been introduced). In the fifteenth century, when it became popular to give human names to familiar species, the bird came to be known as robin redbreast, which was eventually shortened to robin. As a given name, Robin was originally a diminutive of Robert . . . ” [ Lack, D. (1950). Robin Redbreast. Oxford: Oxford, Clarendon Press. p. 44]
Personally, I have never seen this bird except depicted and written about in stories like “The Secret Garden”. But whenever I paint a miniature of them, it is purchased very quickly, and usually by a homesick, transplanted member of a country ‘across the pond’. It would be a treat to see them in their natural setting.
weisserwatercolours 