Easy Way Out, oil on canvas, 11×14

I’m always drawn to the play of light across a pastoral scene. In this particular landscape, I was intrigued by the perpendicular light going across the whole area.

The strength of the composition comes from the contrast of the straight road against the randomness of the vegetation. The Easy Way Out was just to travel down the road, visually jumping from one band of color to the next, and then proceed in either direction.

I started with the sky using a mixture of cobalt blue and manganese purple for the touch of color in the white mixtures. This blue purple mixture contrasted strongly against the yellow greens of the trees and set up the value contrast for the strips of hot light bisecting the scene. I pushed the color and value contrasts to make the strong cool shadow greens set beside the light pale yellows created by the streaming sun.