To paint better trees, you need to understand trees better. That’s the surprising verdict of 20th century landscape painter and author John F. Carlson. In his iconic Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting, he says: “It is curious how one’s feelings about trees change in proportion to one’s appreciation of their importance and dignity as live beings. Trees are individual beings: they can be comic, heroic, tragic to the sensitive, practiced eye of the landscape artist.”
Here, Keiko Tanabe tells you not only how to paint trees, but how to know trees — and that can make all the difference in your results.
“I’m a landscape artist, so it’s natural for trees to show up frequently in my paintings,” says Tanabe. “As common as they may be, however, the role trees play can differ from one painting to the next. For example, in one piece I might want realistic, anatomically correct trees, while in another I’ll use them in a more abstract manner, focusing on their textures or overall feel. Before I start painting I need to decide how I want to portray the trees in my scene to convey my intended narrative effectively.
“Whether I’m painting en plein air or in my studio, I recognize trees (alone or in a group) as one of the shapes that make up the composition. I make sure that I like how the tree shape relates to the other shapes in the scene so that the painting will have an organized look. I then check the size and value of the trees to see how they read in the overall design, depending on what I would like them to do. I ask myself: Should trees play a major role or a more subtle role to support the main idea? Other questions I consider at this point include how important is the accuracy of the tree, what details do I need to depict or how can I simplify those details, and what techniques or brushstrokes can I use to create the desired effects.”
THE MAIN EVENT
“Sometimes a tree or a group of trees can be the theme of my painting. Their mere presence is the story, and they stand out in the composition as the center of interest in works such as Royal Radiance. In this piece, I made sure the large part of the tree would dominate the picture plane and placed people to suggest the scale of the tree. To capture the contrast between the massive, centuries-old cherry tree and fluffy, small flowers that bloom anew every spring, I wanted to depict them in very different ways: a dark tone with hard edges for the tree and a light tone with softer edges for the flowers. I’m not a fan of masking fluid, so I achieved this result by carefully applying darks around the flowers on wet paper first, then I went over the darks once again when the paper dried to enhance the sharp look of the trunk and main branches. For thin branches, I scratched into a few places where I’d painted the dark wash, and dragged a rigger brush with dark paint where I placed a light wash. For added texture, I splattered a bit more for flowers at the end, using a mixture of quinacridone rose and titanium white. I think I succeeded in my intention to create the abstract feel of a misty spring day.”
MOOD SETTERS
“Even if trees don’t serve as the focal point in a painting, they can be used to provide contrast, texture, or atmosphere. In Time to Go Home, trees appear from the middle ground area towards the background in a subtle manner to create depth and a dream-like mood. To start, I painted the leaves of the olive trees, all at once, quickly and loosely, using a wet-into-wet technique to apply a light wash of lemon yellow in the area above the horizon. I then immediately dropped in phthalo blue, dioxazine purple, turquoise, and quinacridone gold, making sure they bled into each other without making mud. As the paper dried, I splattered a mix of these colors to give a slightly realistic look for a few individual leaves. As the area near the horizon dried, I started adding trunks and branches as well as shadows, using a thicker application of paint to anchor the trees to the ground. More splattering created a fuller look for the leaves.”
A SUPPORTING ROLE
“I used a more representational approach for the trees in Shrine Island II. One reason I did so was because I wanted the shrine buildings to be the focus of the painting but needed trees to serve as a natural counterbalance to the man-made structures. Another reason was that I used a plein-air sketch I made at the site as my main reference for the overall composition, but I had a vivid memory of seeing hundreds of pine trees all around me while I sketched. Inspired by that memory, I decided to showcase this particular tree with more details in the upper right corner. For me this adds more authenticity to the painting because it reflects a sense of place that I got to experience. I mainly used a grayed green for the evergreen trees and contrasted them with autumn colors here and there to suggest a particular time of year. I often paint trees with no preliminary drawing, and the three paintings featured here were no exception. If I’m not familiar with a particular tree, I try to understand its basic anatomy first. But after that, as long as I have a good idea of how I want to handle the trees depending on their role in a painting, I’m prepared to paint them freehand.”
