SIMPLICITY, SIMPLICITY, SIMPLICITY

 It cant be said enough, recently while plein air painting I was trying to capture atmosphere, in values and colors, with a beautiful sky,once I thought it was working I turned my attention to beautiful water and rocks up front, I than proceeded to add all this to the bottom two inches of the painting. Later a friend looked at the painting and said what if you eliminate the rocks and frontal water? (Remember this was my second thought to add all this) What a difference in the quality of the painting when I cut the two inches from the bottom. I now had one concept I had originally tried to capture. I am including this little painting with the little buildings and big sky. Imagine how complicated it was with a lot of rocks and churning water up front.

   Look at all your paintings and see if you can crop parts out. I am including another painting with a big sky. These paintings are about the skies. I am also including a plein air marsh painting in which I think I got the ground plain simplified. Ask the question can any part be eliminated first not what can be added?
   In the next few blogs we will look at a plein air workshop in Dahlonega, and my demo for the American Society of Marine Artists at their annual meeting in Savannah. Simplify.