Up Against The Wall oil 6" x 6"

Up Against the Wall
6" x6" Oil


And now for something completely different.....for several years now I have been trying to find the balance between not enough, just enough and too much when composing landscapes. I like the space and the elements in it to be elegantly spare - not an easy thing to accomplish when every little leaf is screaming for attention. So, I thought with this still life I would try to see how three small objects could be arranged for that effect. Then I got to thinking about the space itself. If you are committed to the idea of creating the illusion of air and atmosphere in your landscapes- as I am- then the shallow space of still life should be no problem, right? But noooo. In a book called Rembrandt: The Painter at Work (really good-I highly recommend it) the author demonstrates how Rembrandt would soften edges, reduce paint surfaces and lighten and cool colors to show that a sleeve was receding in space from a cuff! Right then and there I realized I needed to take pretty drastic steps to create the sense of space I wanted in my landscapes. There are just a few inches between these grapes. I wonder what Rembrandt would have done with that?