I'll be Brief...

"Fresh Cut Fields"
7 x 14, Oil on Linen
(c) Lesley Powell 2018
(SOLD)

On my recent painting trip, the focus was the landscape. I spent a great deal of time and effort breaking the landscape down into its simplest elements. I have learned this much from studying with the wonderfully talented Maggie Siner: if you get the foundational aspects of the landscape down correctly, the "details" practically take care of themselves. And on the flip side, if you DON'T get the foundational aspects in place correctly, no amount of tinkering with details can save you.

"Murs Hilltop"
7 x 14, Oil on Linen
(c) Lesley Powell 2018
(Available)

I have written a great deal in this blog about "simplification"--so much, in fact, that the phrase is probably growing tiresome.  I have been thinking of a new way to express this concept, and have come to call it "brevity". I want to convey the landscape with brevity--telling you enough, but not too much. I want to involve the viewer in the painting, so that the
viewer can experience the joy of completing the subject in his or her own mind. That means leaving something to the viewer's imagination. As Anton Chekhov put it, "The secret of boring people lies in telling them everything."  He may have been referring to the written word, but his statement is equally applicable to the visual arts.

"Murs, Morning"
10 x 16, Oil on Linen
(c) Lesley Powell 2018
(Available)

I'm illustrating this post with some paintings from the recent trip. I have tried in these works to reduce the landscape to its essential elements. Doing so involves a lot of decision making about what is essential and what is superfluous. Every landscape is throbbing with activity (telephone poles, fences, shrubs, trees, shadows, houses, and roads, to name a few). It takes concentration to zero in on the essence of the scene, as YOU experience it, and  not to be distracted by the non-essentials. 

"Limestone Cliffs"
12 x 7, Oil on Canvas
(c) Lesley Powell 2018
(Available)

To quote Chekhov again, "Talent is the ability to distinguish the essential from the inessential." So true. It may sound easy, but it is in reality very difficult. One reason I love to paint on location is that the time limitations force me to grab immediately for the most essential elements. There simply isn't time to noodle over irrelevant details. The light changes so quickly that you must come immediately to the point, before everything has changed.

"Morning Fields"
8 x 16, Oil on Linen
(c) Lesley Powell 2018
(SOLD)

A final word on the virtue of brevity. We have all heard the saying that "Brevity is the soul of wit." Chekhov also said that "Brevity is the sister of talent". Need I  say more??