Trailhead - White Mountains

Old Version

This is a painting that I did a couple of years ago on site in New Hampshire.   I came across it since I needed a snowscape for an upcoming show.   With fresh eyes, I instantly saw what wasn't quite right with the painting - probably why it was relegated to "the stack."  It is now reworked and I think that the overall result is better.

Can you identify what I saw in the old painting that I didn't like?

Trailhead - White Mountains

If you said, blockers, you agree with me.  The beautiful distant mountains are the starring feature in this region of New Hampshire.   Although I included them in the painting, there was not just one, but two barriers between the viewer and those lovely mountains. Specifically, the row of shrubs and the sharp beginning of the foreground woods were dark parallel lines across the entire width.   The viewer's eye couldn't flow to the distance, and it was both a psychological block and a physical block.  I had painted the scene literally, so literally that the painting composition suffered.

To fix it, I added a path to a trail into the woods, chopped down the little evergreen to the left of center and added a trailhead marker   These features were borrowed from the trailhead entrance just a short distance away.  We can walk into the scene now - the artistic license everyone talks about!