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, Edwin C. Bertolet’s “Cloud Sweep.”
This nicely backlit painting takes on the misty quality so often found around bodies of water. In reality, the trees may all be the same size, but the artist has grouped them and designed their shapes to give compositional clout rather than monotony. They also act as a perspective line to lead you back through the painting. Although I would like to see a bit more reflected color in the water, the beautiful sky color conveys that soft glow of morning/evening light.
