I am in the final stages of a landscape painting which will be called A Quiet Day in Northcote. Perhaps Arthur Boyd was right when he said …all Australian paintings are in some way a homage to Tom Roberts … as Roberts’ own work A QUIET DAY ON DAREBIN CREEK, has been much in my mind as I worked on this picture.
Constructing a strong composition or design is key to a successful painting. One element of design is depth, but how does an artist depict a volume of space? Traditionally it is taught that recession can be achieved through tone – that is lighter areas at the background of a work and darker areas towards the foreground. You can see this in landscapes such as Caspar Freidrich’s Evening Landscape with Two Men
But what if a motif has very little tonal recession?
