CALIFORNIA SCHOOL ROAD

Prints of this painting can be purchased here now: http://www.inprnt.com/gallery/jeremiahjolliff/

Watch this time lapse video that was made using a GoPro HERO4 Camera

An Original Oil Painting executed en plein air by Fine Artist Jeremiah Jolliff

I really cannot recommend a better book than Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting Without his timeless advice, the progress made would have been less to be sure. In the opening paragraph in regards to trees he states: “How do you paint a tree? By understanding them.” He continues: “Know your trees, their nature, their growth, their movement; understand that they are conscious, living things, with tribulations and desires not wholly disassociated from your own. Emerson has beautifully named trees, “rooted men.” In many ways they excel man.”

Even amongst the ancient root race of northern Europe, the veneration of trees gave birth to an entire mythology owing to the mystical experience that was made to manifest in the holy groves of divinity.There is no great secret to painting a tree, except to see it for what it is. To see how this tree has a certain predilection different from another tree. Paint can be applied in a myriad of ways, but understanding of the organism will lead to a higher manner of rendering.

There is but one type of art; either it is fine or it is not. Good oil painting technique depends on one thing alone and that is draftsmanship because painting is merely drawing with a brush. It is necessary for the plein air painter to develop a strong foundation of drawing with charcoal. NEVER paint or draw from a photograph. If one is desirous of being a painter than one must paint and paint alone. Using a camera is the tool of a photographer not a painter. Abraham Lincoln said that: “A house divided cannot stand.” Likewise in the book of Mathew it reads: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” When watching the video notice how many times it is necessary to draw a tree. The first step is to render the tree with Grumbacher Vine Charcoal

After establishing the place and feeling of the tree with charcoal, paint in the sky color in all of the hollows between branches. Of course now it is time to paint in the branches themselves using a mixture of Winsor Newton Burnt Siennaand dollop of Winsor Newton Cobalt Blue and Winsor Newton Titanium White These colors create an almost perfect and pecuiliar grey color of decidous trees. Once the branches have been completed go back in and re-establish the sky. Finally, the leaves can be added.

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