"The Hastening Tree" Tree Art by Jill Saur

This painting, "The Hastening Tree" is 30"x40".  It is in my personal collection, but it is available in a personally hand embellished giclee.  This tree is on the beautiful Chattahoochee River.

What I love about this tree, is that from a distance it appears to be in its prime.  It continues to enamor its viewers with robust alluring shades of green foliage.  At sunrise, the trunk offers striking contrasts of light and dark.  Even the bark is bejeweled with flecks of rich golds, browns, and reds.

The great surprise comes upon close inspection.  The middle base of the tree is completely hollow!  It is absolutely amazing that the tree is entirely supported by the sides and the few roots that make its way to the soil.  This tree is fighting for its last hoorah, its last great moment.  It is reaching to the light and putting forth its branches for all to see.  It’s death will be swift and sudden.  There is no middle ground for this tree.  It is living in splendor and then it will be gone.  I am moved by the lessons it is teaching me and I am compelled to paint it in all of its seasons.  I have actually been photographing this tree for well over two years now.  I have witnessed this tree at sunrise when the first rays of the sun illuminate its weathered trunk and I have sat at its base in the mist of the afternoon when the only hue is a dull grey.   This is when the tree is most haunting and sullen.  My most recent visit was a week ago when the last remnant of fall glistened on its colorful leaves.

I guess you could say that this is one of my special places to go when I need some time to think, pray, evaluate my life, and listen for answers.  Please visit my website to purchase my art.  


website: CLICK HERE

©1990 till present, Tree Painting by Jill Saur, all rights reserved

Art For Sale; Tree Art, Aspen Art, Landscape ArContemporary Art, Floral Art, Nature Art, Aspen Tree Paintings, and Georgia Art in an original or icle

Chattahoochee River

© 2010 Jill Saur Fine Art, Chattahoochee River, all rights reserved

I took Sky, my dog, down to the river today for a walk in solitude.  It was magnificent!  I love the Chattahoochee and the seclusion it offers. God's beauty is everywhere, but I see it most when I am near the water, and of course, my trees! The fall foliage was spectacular and I got some great shots. I can't wait to get back in the studio to paint!

Rise Early

This painting "Broken Silence" is from a photo that I took at about 6:45 in the morning. For a new and refreshing type of inspiration, get up early and find the morning light illuminating that special thing that inspires you!

Just as a person can sense who God is by looking at His creation, a person should be able to sense something about an artist by looking at their artwork. - Jill

Value Applications

General Art Theory

On the left is a grey scale of ten values. On the right is an Ingres

painting with the color removed. Without the color, you can see the values that the artist used.

The following statements are a guide used by the Old Masters:

Mid-Tones should occupy 70% of your painting. Light-Tones should occupy 20% of your painting. Dark-Tones should occupy 10% of your painting. The painting on the right is a good example of this.

Expression

Van Gogh once said that his strokes of paint came like speech. That is what we do as artists. The canvas is our journal and we express ourselves with unspoken word. Every one of my paintings is a personal diary of my thoughts and my feelings. If a picture is worth a thousand words, I wonder what a painting is worth?

Leonardo da Vinci Quote

Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art. (Leonardo da Vinci)

Leonardo Da Vinci and Value

Leonardo Da Vinci was a master at capturing and portraying value changes. His skillful use of light and dark defined three-dimensional shape known as chiaroscuro, a style of shading that dominates tone (brightness) more than color.

Leonardo was a painter, a sculptor and an architect. He was a master in each art form and a brilliant conveyor of life.

Value Study With Ink

This is a value study with found objects from the beach. I used watercolor paper, black waterproof ink, one round brush, and a bamboo pen. I filled ten sections of an empty styrofoam egg container with water. I added one drop of black ink in the first section, two drops in the second, three in the third, until all ten were filled. I incorporated all ten values from light to dark in this painting.  Rembrandt, Albert Bierstadt, and Winslow Homer were masters at displaying remarkable tonal values.

©1990 till present, value study by Jill Saur, all rights reserved

Values In Painting - Art Class Roswell, GA.

VALUES IN PAINTING by Jill Saur

The paintings below are by Winslow Homer. The first painting is the original.  The second painting is the same one.  I removed the color from the second image to see the tonal values.

Lightness or tonal value is the light or dark of a color, regardless of its hue. Creating a black and white painting is very helpful to train your eye to perceive value.

Sometimes it’s easier to classify values into three groups: lights, darks, and mid-range.  Roughly, values from one through three are the lightest values.  Values from four through seven are the mid values, and values from eight through ten are the darkest values.  A general guide is that mid-tones should occupy 70% of your painting, the lightest lights 20%, and the darkest darks should occupy 10% of your work.

If I'm going to paint from a photo that I take, the first thing I do is put it in a photo program and I turn it into a black and white image.  When I do this, I know immediately if the image has a good range to make the composition interesting as well as intriguing.

A number of my students have been working on value drawings and paintings.  I hope this tip helps you see the importance of training your eye to see and use value changes in your artwork.

www.JillSaurFineArt.com

Painting Journal

I keep a painting journal for most of the paintings that I do. I make a preliminary sketch, write down the colors that I end up using, and any special techniques that I discover. I also write my thoughts as to what inspired me to do the painting. If a palette turns out to be spectacular, it helps to have it written down for future paintings. When I finish my painting, I take my archived picture of the painting, print it, and put in in my journal. I hope this helps. - Jill