The birth of a tree

A new tree was born, an additional to my trees' family. If you have followed my art lately you've realized that I am into trees lately. Their branches create a fabulous abstract structure. In fact, Mondrian early works was a study of trees which were slowly diverted into abstract, leading the way to his famous red-blue-yellow famous square abstracts.

My trees (as most of my paintings lately) start with blue lines marking their branches. Then they develop either to very graphic forests or with a touch of impressionism.
Usually the colors are unnatural.

Today I finished another tree. This time it has more realistic colors. Here it is:

 

As always it began with blue lines and then came the background. Yes, I know... It is somewhat backwards. Usually you should begin with the background and only then you draw the lines. Makes life easier. However, I like how the imperfect background covers parts of the lines, making them less sharp.

 

Finishing this part allows me to check the composition, see if I am happy with it. Then I continue to the stage which will be my second layer of background.

 

It starts to feel like trees and I like the depth, but the whole thing is too impressionistic to my liking. Third and hopefully last layer will make it more graphic.

 

So, I choose now to add somewhat childish leaves. Their colors are bright, the edges sharp, pulling them forward and by that making the background deeper.

 

 

Again I need to check the composition. Oddly, I cannot see it objectively just by looking at it. I use the large mirror in my studio or even better, I take a photo and check it on my computer.

I am not happy. There is no balance and the background looks flat.

Another day of work, additional leaves, treating again the background with some green mixed with red.

I am done!

I sign!