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, Bruce Newman‘s “Spring Renewal.”
It is a challenge to do a rushing river from this angle. It is easy to make it look too much like a waterfall or hiking path if you use too many rounded curves. The artist has used the rocks to put in horizontal lines to set the river down. The horizontal lines step you back gradually, leading you into the eddies and pools. Level water takes the eye around bends and crags for quietness before rushing back into the current. I like how he took the gray of the water and livened it up with the reflections of the trees and sky.
