Thursday, August 2, 2007

Grab Your Shovel: Cezanne (Gardens #2)

Last night I was looking around for something to sketch just to wind down. I found Cezanne's "View Through the Trees, L'Estaque" in one of my Cezanne books. Here is an oil reproduction of Cezanne's work (sorry, couldn't find a picture of his painting online.)

I don't suppose this is traditionally in the garden category, more of the landscape category. However, I can imagine this being the view from a garden on the coastline on California. Not that I've ever been in one of those multi-million dollar mansions to know, but I suspect it's close. The colors Cezanne uses here are tremendous. He's got oranges, blues, purples, and greens. Even though the oranges are just below center (the buildings), the effect of the picture is cool. I almost hear the cool wind blowing through the trees. I think there are two reasons for that. One, the darkest darks are up in the overhanging green trees, they have a weighty presence - almost as if whatever is seen through them is inconsequential, he was focussed on painting the trees. Two, he uses a consistent angle for his brush strokes in the trees and they are choppy strokes, giving the effect that the leaves are rustling.

2 comments:

Kasie @ ~The Art of Life~ said...

Wow! I am so impressed with all the neat things you are learning! Gardens would be an interesting subject to study. I've always struggled with landscapes of any type.
:)

Rose Welty said...

That's the best part of these little monthly projects, I learn alot! You can always jump in with the gardens. I've never drawn gardens before, a few landscapes, but not anything too serious. But hopefully, at the end of the month, if I want to throw a tree or bush or something into a portrait, I will have confidence to do so...maybe :-)