I’m so excited to welcome you back to the Landscape Art Club after our holiday break! I hope your creative energy is as refreshed as mine, and you’re ready to dive into our first challenge of 2025. This week, we’re exploring Iffeldorf (Bavaria, Germany) a serene winter landscape near Ostersee, captured during one of my day trips over the holidays.
To kick off the year, I’m introducing a new layer to our weekly challenges: a focus point. This week, it’s tree composition, and we’re looking at how trees, as the main subject, can guide your artwork and storytelling. Trees are often the unsung heroes of landscape art. They provide structure, rhythm, and emotion to a scene, becoming natural focal points or supporting players. But translating what we see in a reference photo into a compelling painting isn’t always straightforward. This is where composition becomes crucial.
In landscape art, trees often serve as natural anchors in a composition. Their placement, size, and interaction with the surrounding elements can guide the viewer’s eye and set the emotional tone of the painting. For example, a lone tree on a hill might evoke a sense of isolation or peace. While a group of trees can create rhythm, balance, or even tension. The shape, angle, and shadows of a tree can emphasize movement or stability. Good composition ensures that these visual cues work together to tell a story or evoke a feeling. But photos don’t always provide ready-made compositions. Instead, they often need interpretation and adjustment to work as a painting.
Let’s start with a breakdown of the provided for this week reference photos, highlighting key compositional elements, potential challenges, and tips for tackling them. Then, I’ll share my artwork inspired by this challenge and reflect on how I approached it. If you’ve ever wondered why painting directly from a photo sometimes falls flat, you’ll find plenty of answers and solutions here. For a deeper dive into this topic, don’t miss my post on Why Copying Photos Doesn’t Work: How Composition Transforms Landscape Art.
Analyzing the Reference Photos
When I selected these images, I realized each one offered unique opportunities to explore tree composition. Here’s how I see them:
Image 1: The Solitary Tree by the Water
This photo presents a single tree silhouetted against a bright sun, with the lake’s shimmering reflection adding a secondary point of interest.
Key Idea: Consider making the tree a “portrait” by cropping the composition vertically and cutting out unnecessary elements.
Focus Question: What’s your main subject — the tree, the sun, or the water’s reflection? Avoid trying to make everything equally important; pick one and simplify
Tip: If you choose the tree, let it stand boldly by removing or muting the other elements. If the sun or reflection is your focus, frame the tree to support it rather than compete with it.
Image 2: Twin Trees and the Small Structure
Here, two asymmetrical trees frame a small white house on a gentle hill.
Key Idea: Decide whether your focus is the trees or the house. If it’s the trees, keep the house subtle. If it’s the house, emphasize it with brighter colors or more detail.
Focus Question: How can the asymmetry of the trees (their shape, angle, and size) create a more dynamic and interesting composition?
Tip: Use the hill’s slope to subtly guide the viewer’s eye toward your focal point.
Image 3: The Lone Pine in an Open Field
This is perhaps the clearest composition of the four — a solitary green pine set against a duller background.
Key Idea: Highlight the contrast between the tree’s green color and the muted tones of the field and distant forest.
Focus Question: Do you want to emphasize the tree’s shape or its role as a solitary figure in the landscape?
Tip: Consider adding a sense of scale by including the person from the original photo or adjusting the framing to play with the tree’s proportions.
Image 4: The Tree and Its Reflection
A tree by the water, mirrored in the lake, creates a natural symmetry.
Key Idea: Reflections offer a unique compositional tool. Do you want to emphasize both the tree and its reflection, or crop one out entirely?
Focus Question: How can you separate the smaller tree from the dense forest background to make it stand out?
Tip: Use air perspective by softening the background and playing with light to create depth and clarity.
My Artwork: "The Solitary Pine"
After reflecting on the reference photos, I decided to paint the lone pine tree from the Image 3. This scene resonated with me because of its simplicity and strength — it’s a moment of solitude and quiet that feels both peaceful and powerful. When I was walking there, this tree immediately caught my attention. I passed by, but then I returned to take several photos (I simply could not resist!)
Here’s how I approached it. I wanted the tree to be the undisputed star of the painting. By centering the composition on the pine and simplifying the background, I let its vibrant green and distinctive shape shine. The muted background tones allowed me to create depth without distracting from the tree, and the cool shadows in the foreground added contrast and balance.
What I Like:
The balance of detail and simplicity: The foliage and bark are textured and lively, but I avoided overworking them to keep the overall effect harmonious.
The play of light and shadow: Capturing the crisp blue shadows on the ground brought the winter atmosphere to life.
The color harmony: The warm trunk and cool greens and blues create a cohesive, calming palette.
What I Could Improve:
Foreground textures: Adding subtle texture or elements in the grass could create more depth and draw the viewer’s eye toward the tree.
Highlighting the trunk: Slightly enhancing the warmth and brightness of the trunk might better separate it from the foliage.
Refining the edges: Experimenting with softer edges between the foliage and sky could make the tree feel even more natural.
I hope this post inspires you to dive into this week’s challenge with renewed energy and creativity! Trees are such a versatile subject in landscape art, and their arrangement can dramatically change the mood and focus of a painting. Whether it’s the stark silhouette of a lone tree or the interplay of asymmetrical shapes, there’s so much potential to explore.
If you’re working on this challenge, I’d love to hear your thoughts:
What’s your biggest compositional challenge when painting trees?
Have you experimented with cropping or reframing your reference images?
How do you balance detail and simplicity when focusing on a tree?
Feel free to share your work or insights in the comments below!
For those who’d like to dive deeper and discuss their artwork or get a detailed feedback, do not hesitate and post your artwork in the related thread of our Landscape Art Club Forum. Do not forget that in the Forum, you are also able to download high-resolution versions of this week’s reference photos, which is perfect for more detailed studies.
And of course, the Instagram challenge is in full swing! Here's how to participate:
Post your artwork by Thursday, 16 January 2025, 23:59 CET
Use the hashtag #landscapeartclub154
Tag @landscapeartclub to make sure I see your work!
Make sure that your account is public, otherwise I will not be able to see your post
Let’s make this year’s first challenge a truly inspiring one. I can’t wait to see what you create and what do you think about new changes!
Happy painting, and as always, stay inspired!
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