Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Brown in the Landscape

                                                                                       (C) 2024 Dale DiMauro
 

One really notices the browns along the river beds in early spring, at least where I live, in southern Vermont. This is before most of the growth has re-emerged and the ground is bare. At this time of year the water in the rivers is all stirred up with the rains and snow melt.

However, finding a rich, lively brown is a challenge in watercolor. Most of the browns I have come up with are dull, weak or flat. This brown has got me excited. It is made by combining sepia and burnt umber. 

An earthy brown says so much about the landscape. In this little sketch it frames the background but is also seen as the soil, the trees and the downed limbs which float in the river and litter the shoreline.

No comments:

Post a Comment