In this series, plein air painter and instructor Jeanne Mackenzie takes a look at new paintings by contemporary artists and points out why they succeed as painted images. This week Tim Kelly‘s “Friendship Park.”
What a wonderful study in greens. The artist has given the often overworked color a great range of interesting effects — varied temperature (warm to cool), chroma (intense and muted), and values (a strong range of lights to darks). All of these qualities give it punch and keep it from saying “green painting.” The use of the diagonals help to lead your eye into the shade, where there are lots of interesting elements to look at and it is not a dark hole. The use of ellipses in the water helps to set the pond down. Notice the larger ellipse in the foreground and how there are smaller and flatter ellipses as they go back in space and get closer to the eye level/horizon line.
