The challenges and possibilities of painting the humble tree — the foundation of landscape art
'Very often trees don't obey what we think of in our heads as tree-like'
Landscape Artist of the Year Canada brings together the country's top professional and amateur artists in a battle of the brushes to see who can best capture the country's most iconic landscapes. Stream Landscape Artist of the Year Canada now on CBC Gem.
As a way to frame a scene, as a way to show the movement of air and light, and as a subject itself, the tree is a foundational part of landscape painting. But when trying to paint them, individual trees can be tricky and a bit elusive to capture.
"No tree is identical to another tree, yet we all know what a tree looks like," art historian Ian Dejardin tells Landscape Artist of the Year Canada. "Trees grow organically. They have individual shapes."
"I think there's a challenge facing an artist painting a tree, because very often trees don't obey what we think of in our heads as 'tree-like.' They can go off at angles, they have broken branches."
Trees can also have meaning beyond themselves: "They can stand in for people, they mean something to people," says Dejardin.
"As a framing device, they're classic. Landscape painters the world over from the 17th century onwards would use a tree placed to one side. The tree gives the scale to the landscape and suggests the distance beyond."
Trees can add an intangible depth to a painting as well, capturing intangible aspects of a scene such as light and the movement of air. "They require you to think about the air that moves through them," Dejardin says, "and some artists focus on that. Emily Carr was interested in the way light and air moved through a tree."
Dejardin, who is British, also sees another challenge of painting trees in Canada: "In Canada you have a particular problem as well. As a British person, your trees are just too big! How do you fit them in? The things are enormous! And to use them in an artistic way and not lose sense of that fundamental tree — it's a challenge!"
Stream Landscape Artist of the Year Canada now on CBC Gem.
