Covered Bridge

Covered Bridge - s3e6

As anyone who has looked at my paintings would attest, my biggest nemesis in my paintings is foliage. Foliage and I are not friends. Deep woods scenes in a painting ... we are not even on speaking terms :)

On a serious note, I really need to work on my crowded foliage scenes. I have had my eye on "Covered Bridge' for a while now, but the deep woods background terrifies me. On top of that, it is an early Bob painting (season 3) and I really don't care for Bob's style in his early paintings.

Well, I put on my big boy pants and gave 'Covered Bridge' a go. I am actually semi satisfied with my results. You also probably already know this about me, I like a bit of color in my paintings. I saw a picture of a covered bridge and at the entrance were some sawed logs stood on end. I liked the idea, and I took it 1 step further by painting the logs in the colors of my football team - the Buffalo Bills :) Probably a goofy idea, but as Bob always says, it is my world. I like the touch of color in this mostly green scene.

I plan on doing another covered bridge scene at sometime, with a less foliage crowded background.

As far as the bridge itself, I used brushes to paint the bridge. I really enjoy that part of the process.

I tried a different technique to give the bark look on the right side tree. Let me just say this was a great exercise for fine script brush application :)

Overall, my composition ended up with a bit more open space in the foreground than I would have liked. I contemplated adding more to the foreground, but in the end, I left it rather sparse. It almost gives the impression of walking from someone's backyard, thru the tunnel, to a different world.

If this were your painting, would you consider it finished, or would you add more to the foreground?

As usual photo does not do the painting justice. 18" x 24" canvas. As always, your comments (especially suggestions) are desired and welcome.