Four Values

In my outdoor workshops, I teach John F. Carlson's concept of rendering the landscape in four values. Typically, the darkest darks will be uprights, such as trees; the mid-darks will be slanted surfaces, such as hills; the mid-lights will be flat surfaces, such as meadows; and the lightest lights will be in the sky.

I ran into a situation the other day that exemplified this concept almost perfectly. Rather than slanted surfaces as the mid-darks, I had a distant, befogged treeline. The value of the treeline is close to that of the meadow, but still a bit lighter. You can see clearly how I've broken up the landscape into big, simple shapes and have kept my four values well-separated.

"So Quiet"
9x12, oil, en plein air
SOLD