Postcard No 25: Life by the River
Living bythe Huon River is not all about reflections, boats and birds. There are lot’s of other subjects that are really interesting to paint. Alongside the river bank are reed beds, wetlands, native flora and escaped garden plants. The water’s edge has little coves with driftwood, oysters at low tide, and washed up flotsom and jetsom. In the water there are colourful buoys and channel markers along with the remains of old jetties.
It’s winter so there’s lots of atmospheric effects what with fog, mist and rain and today I wanted to capture the native broadleafed cumbungi in the wind. I know the introduced species is a problem but there are two native bullrushes, the broad leafed cumbungi and the narrow leafed cumbungi. It’s the time of year when the cumbungi begin to lose their classic manicured brown cylindrical heads as they burst open to reveal silky white seed strands and they make a magical show when the wind starts whipping the silk into the air.
Sometimes a simple background is a better option and in this case I wanted to suggest the bullrushes against a winter’s sky and leave out any other details.
It’s difficult to paint something you can’t see …so here I suggest the wind by sweeping the white gouache into the sky with a flat brush. The sweeping motions all go in the same diagonal direction so we get a sense of the direction the wind is blowing.
The bullrushes were painted with a mix of burnt sienna and black and the fluffy seed silk was dropped in with white paint while the sienna was still just wet so that it mixed a little to create a creamy white. Pure white would have been too stark for the mood I was after.
I pushed some of the bullrushes back a little by dragging some of the sky colour over the edges to soften and lighten them and this helps to give a sense of depth to the sketch. Next I added a rush coming in from the right side because I felt the space needed balancing.
Lastly I added some fineliner detail to sharpen some areas and then ran a little sky colour over the bottom of the stems so that they don’t go all the way to the bottom of the picture and our eye is returned to the silky seeds flying away with the wind.
Simple subjects don’t necessarily mean simple paintings.
For such a simple subject there’s actually quite a lot to think about in terms of creating atmosphere and a balanced composition. My aim was to take a small stand of bullrushes and imbue them with atmosphere and movement. I hope I’ve managed to do that to some degree by keeping a simple background, using sweeping brushstrokes, paying attention to the placement of soft and hard edges and resisting the temptation to use pure white. I also kept to a limited palette of burnt sienna, black, white and sky blue which made for an overall colour harmony.
Next time you feel overwhelmed by the landscape try zooming in on a small detail and let it fill your page. There’s a real freedom in going large with smaller subjects. Is this something you already do and how have you found it informs your larger landscapes?
Lindy Whitton Studio 
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