Autumn Poplars

For some reason I started thinking about minimalist landscapes last week. I couldn't get the idea out of my head so I had to try one, this painting is the result. I picked a reference photo that was pretty good from the start so I wouldn't have to think too much about composition. I played with the photo on my computer first by blurring it and reducing the colors before printing it out to use for reference. I also limited my color palette so I wouldn't have to think about that either. I mixed up a warm dark using ultramarine blue and burnt sienna, in addition to the warm dark I only used burnt sienna, yellow ochre and white, this analogous color scheme almost gives the painting a monochromatic feel. The reference photo was in summer at midday, the colors I used changed it to autumn and gave it a sunset kind of feel. This was a fun experiment, I may create a series of minimalist landscape paintings in the future.