When I Paint Landscapes How Much Should I Simplify?

' Birch Path' Acrylic Watercolour

Beginning painters, particularly painters in transparent watercolour, are told to simplify everything they paint.

The question is how much simplification should be done?

Well! For a start, a considerable degree of simplification is forced upon us because we cannot possibly paint every leaf on a tree. Nor even every branch. So as we have to simplify perhaps a better way to look at the problem is to ask ourselves not how much should I leave out but what should I put in? That decision should be made before a brush is allowed to touch paper.

I chose the picture above to show you today, because I think it shows quite well how a fairly complex subject can be treated.

The picture is about birch trees and how they grow, but not all of the foreground trees are shown, only the lower part of the trunks. It doesn’t mean that the rest of the tree isn’t there, only that the bits that aren’t shown are not relevant to the statement being made.

In the parts of the tree that are included I have left enough detail to leave no doubt as to the type of tree we are looking at. I have also simplified the undergrowth but it is still clear what it consists of and what it would be like to walk through, either on or off the path.

What is sometimes done and for me this is a big mistake, is to simplify the subject until most of its detail and texture is lost and only the basic shapes remain. I call paintings of this type ‘blandscapes’ and for me they never work.

My feelings are that sufficient detail or suggestion of detail should be included so that the viewer can imagine just how the items included would feel if they were touched. Rough surfaces should appear to be rough. Smooth surfaces should be smooth.

The decision about when a painting is finished is often a difficult one. For me a painting is finished when you can feel it.

Have a good weekend. Do lots of painting if you can and most of all enjoy it.

Take care.

Tony