Every season has its charm: winter is introspection; spring is promise of renewal; summer is energy; and fall is last hurrah. Finding inspiration in these seasons is part of what makes landscape painting so enjoyable. We know that change is inevitable. Our subject matter is never still. As the earth wobbles on its axis, the seasons come and go. We might have our favorite, even one that finds us producing the most work, but fall seems to be the one most often mentioned for its visual stimulation. The transition from greens to warm yellows, oranges, and reds never seems to disappoint. Every region has its personality on display; see what southern Oregon has to offer in the photo at left.

Areas with an abundance of hardwoods will put on the most spectacular of shows: Maple, birch, aspen, alder, elm, cottonwood, and even oak have their special palettes. Bu even the brushes of the desert add their notes of color to make fall one of the most inspiring, if fleeting, times of year.

Due to the juxtaposition of cool and warm, these autumn scenes are often difficult to portray without looking artificial. The unsuspecting landscape painter, whose paintings of winter, spring, and summer work well, often winds up struggling to make a vibrant fall scene look respectable. A suggestion that might make this stimulating time of year a little easier to handle: Choose a dominant color temperature for the painting. Imbue all the color choices with that temperature as a means of unifying what could otherwise be a painting made up of opposing color families. An example would be choosing a warm color temperature and then toning the intense blue sky and green grasses down a bit in chroma (intensity) to better unify it with the bright intense warm tones that dominate the painting. By graying the cooler tones, they will become naturally warmer and better allow the warms to dominate the painting. A cooler temperature would affect the chroma (intensity) of the fall foliage, making it slightly grayed and better unifying it with the intense cool sky and grasses. By choosing one color temperature to be of the highest chromatic intensity, a painting that represents even the most exciting of color variations (like yellow, red, and orange adjacent to blue and green) will harmonize.

Enjoy what fall has to offer; soon winter will be upon you and another inspiration will be taking your hand.

Painting is but an illusion. How we handle the elements within the framework of the painting relate visually to the viewer and communicate our intentions. Learning the strength of these elements is our ongoing job. How edges are manipulated can be one of the strongest tools we have in conveying focus and form. The sculptor creates within the realm of mass, producing bulk and relating form. The painter, on the other hand, works on a flat surface and produces the appearance of form with the visual elements of shape, value, color, and edge. Our pastel surface is flat. We have to produce the magic of making it appear dimensional. Hard, sharper edges produce stronger focus and flatness. Soft, blurred edges produce less attention and more depth of form. Finessing hard and soft edges throughout our paintings can lead to more attention and depth.

The relativity of edges throughout a painting is determined by the artist’s choices. Something may appear very soft in one painting and yet appear hard in another, depending on how the edges are handled comparatively. If an artist chooses to work very sharp edged, then anything slightly blurred will appear very soft. If everything is blurred, anything slightly hard will appear sharp. Generally speaking, creating harder edges near the area of interest, or major focal points, leads the viewer to a specific area and holds their attention, just like focusing our vision on a given area makes it appear sharper. Conversely, softer, fuzzy edges diminish and become less important, which leads to a feeling of bulk due to the offset placement of our eyes. Softer edged objects within our paintings feel as if they could be hugged.

Orchestrating between hard and soft edges becomes a personal style choice. Understanding their visual power provides us the power of the illusion: producing both focus and bulk. Another magician’s trick exposed!


Painting detail: illustrating hard and soft edges within a pastel painting.