Master Artist Study

During the late 20th century, American artist Sylvia Plimack Mangold produced a variety of landscape paintings which adressed rural themes, but more specifically of leafless limbs and branches creating interesting silhouettes  My previous painting represented this theme in that I portrayed a winter tree with the grey winter sky background. In fact, when researching her work I found a shockingly close resemblance between our subject matters, especially the painting to the right. One interesting aspect of this painting which I love is the depth she manages to create using branch color. For my first painting working with branches, I visualized each limb as one mass with consistent color, but Mangold adresses the faded nature of branches in the distance by having the gray background color overlap. I also love the sky she construct using clear patches of white and shades of gray, giving the background a subtle animation. In my painting, I struggled to show the delicacy of the tree, and create such a wide variety of branch sizes and angles, however Mangold does it simply and effectively. Layers of gray were added simultaneously as the branches were painted, allowing them to sit evenly in the painting, and not appear too obtrusive. I also like how while certain portions of the tree are angular, the overall structure has gentle sloping to it. These are all elements which Mangold uses with expertise, and I hope to implement in future work.