Another field sketch

Hayfield sketch IV, 5 x 7 ", watercolour, July 2010

Here is another sketch of the field.  I am experimenting with where to place the trees and the resulting placement of them changes the look of the painting quite a bit.  If you compare this one to the one I posted yesterday you will see how the absence of the trees on the left gives a different feeling to the sketch.  In the one above my eyes go to the trees in the center and tend to stop, not moving around much.  In the other one (below, I reposted it to save you scrolling up and down so much) I feel like my eyes enter the painting at the lower right, travel up the shadow line to the mass of trees on the left and then along the treeline to the buildings and back down the hay bales to the center of the painting. 

I have been following Stapleton Kearns blog recently and am learning a lot about painting design.  I highly recommend reading his blog to anyone who has any interest in art and landscape painting in particular.  He is a New England painter whose passion for art rings clearly through his writings.  He is very generous with his insight into what makes paintings "tick".  His blog is well worth studying.  And he has a wicked sense of humour.  If I am laughing at the computer I am usually reading his blog. He did a series of posts on Winslow Homer's watercolours last month that I have already reread a few times.  A great blog.  Enough said. 

At the demo that I did recently I mentioned another site that I have found very interesting and extremely helpful, this one specifically for watercolour painters. If you have ever had a question about the physical properties of watercolour paints, you will be able to find the answer at handprint.com