This month’s painting is The Sun Shines, Falls Creek, Obi Obi Valley by Ken Wenzel. This was one of my earliest inspirations for painting. My parents purchased the original some 20 years ago at one of Wenzel’s exhibitions.
My parents also managed to find a signed book and catalogue from that exhibition.
Your Thoughts?
Use this as an opportunity to test your ability to analyze master paintings. In the comments below, share what you think are the top 3 most important aspects of the painting. These could relate to areas such as composition, color, value, progress, brushwork, subject, or symbolism. Once you have done that, you can compare your thoughts with my own in the drop-down below.
Click here to see my thoughts.
- There’s a horizontal color gradation in the sky, suggesting light is coming from the right-hand side. This also adds interest to an otherwise quiet area.
- The trees get progressively bluer and lighter as they recede into the distance. This conveys a sense of atmospheric perspective.
- In the water, there’s a pleasant contrast between still, glassy areas and broken areas. You can feel the water pooling, then rushing over the shallow, rocky surface.
- The painting has an incredibly realistic finish. This comes down to the use of careful detailing in the lights.
- The reflections in the water are compressed in terms of color. The lights are not as light and the darks are not as dark.
There is a strong sense of light coming from the right, emphasized by the shadows of the riverbank and each little rock in the stream. I feel that, in spite of the left-curving stream, the focus is central and vertical. The large round shape of the tree at center top is repeated in the island in the stream, and anchored by the saturated blue water in the foreground.
Excellent use of both atmospheric and linear perspective; the values are very well shown; the turn of the water to the left adds interest to the composition; the light on the grass and the water, the rocks, and the water are so well executed with the detailing in the brushwork; I love the color and texture of the grass leading the eye and serving as a link. Not sure about the large, round, centrally-located tree.
I’m not going to do a critique of it per se but I do want to say how much I love it. It reminds me so much of my childhood in England (trees look like english trees not the west australian trees that I’m now familiar with).
I can almost hear the light trickling noise of the water gently running over the pebbles and I can feel that familiar sense of adventure/comfort and excitement I still get from being in natural surroundings.
The greens are spectacular which I think is why I first read this as a photo, but this painting is all about the light. It is so informative. The trees tell me the light is from the right, but the light in the stream tells me it’s almost lunchtime. The sparkles are so close to the right side of the stream bank and the rays home in on the grassy part of the bank and the shrub and tree in the distant stream next to the right bank. The sky gradient tells me it’s still morning. Not sure where the focal point is. Seems to be the glistening stream with a lot of supporting actors with the grass in the middle/lower third, rocks and sparkles. Not a sole in sight, but for me it’s a very restful stop along the way.
This painting seem to take one on a journey down the river on a bright summer day. It is very atmospheric and inviting with good use of colour and contrasts between foreground and distance. This is beautiful work that from a distance looks photogenic, however seeing the details up close it is very painterly too. I like it!
The depth in the painting is brilliant. The greens in nature are hard to capture, and his are perfect. The detail in the foreground catches you eye and the curve of the stream takes you through the painting. I could look at this painting all day and continually see more.
As a beginner painter I have been repeatedly told to try not to capture every rock and blade of grass. This painting does that and looks beautiful. It must have taken many hours to finish. Why does this painting work to have spent hours on each rock by the shore and each groove in the bank?
I am impressed by the details and the textures of the painting, as well as by the excellent use of color.
I love the peace of the painting – it is inviting you to just sit and enjoy. The light in particular is just lovely, and the subtlety of the water .
The painting draws you in and keeps you in the
Middle of the picture. Great use of perspective and light. Love the realism of the scene.
In this painting I love the use of light, and the colour of the water. The grassland is beautifully done. The whole scene is idyllic. The little eroded cliffs make the composition more interesting. The only thing I am not happy about is the background. The trees, although well painted, let the work down slightly. They are like prose, whereas the foreground is a poem. Perhaps that large centre tree is the problem. Perhaps it is that, as a watercolourist, I like to see trees painted in a different manner. So who am I to be criticizing this talented artist’s exceptional work?
For me, it brings to mind Maxfield Parrish landscapes with the sharp contrasts, a hyper-real quality, and a posed feel within nature itself, as though the stream held still for the painter. Amongst the detail shots, I found a couple to be very pleasing compositions in themselves!
oh thank you Carol for your mention of the “posed” feel. I was looking for the right word to express what I was seeing.
Love the peace that this painting portrays. Soft contrasts and use of greens which I find hard to obtain the way nature does and the old masters.
Oh, this is a perfect painting for me to love!! Wenzel’s style is right where I am at the moment in my style evolvement. I especially like the way he has presented depth and perspective. The colors are all colors I like and lean towards in my own work. Green and blue have always been favorite colors going back to childhood. I would be remiss if I didn’t also point out that I am drawn to the detail. I do find the big tree placed in the center of the painting slightly distracting.
This is an amazing painting and framed so perfectly. I like the way you presented different areas to view the brushstrokes, changes in textures and the dabs of light striking the edges. Wenzel has excellent use of contrast: the high value colors against the dark edge of the cliff, the texture of the rocks contrasts the water and the water’s edge, the light with the dark shadows of the trees plus the contrast of the weeds and grass against the dark cliff. The artist’s mastery of green is beautiful, he created shapes within the trees while varying the shapes, size and color of the trees to depict linear perspective. This painting has a variety of elements that is well balanced and in proportion. My eye leads through the water and then through the line of the well placed trees into the distance. The mountains in the distance adds to the depth and atmospheric perspective of this amazingly painted scene that incorporates good use of light and color.
Wentzel’s painting is truly an example of great painting craftsmansip. I believe the composition and color are the most appealing factors in this painting, in my opinion.
The top 3 things I notice most are the light (which the painting’s title suggests is the main point of the picture), the strongly central focus, and the atmospheric sense of distance. It also appears almost unnaturally still; the water is barely rippled, the brush strokes throughout create very little sense of movement, and there are no animals or birds. Personally in a landscape I find it’s nice to have little sub-focal points that invite the viewer to explore them, but this feels rather constrained, or restrained.
My first thought whenever I see a landscape with lots of green is…oh my, lots of green. I find greens the hardest of colors to work with…then I realize there is a lot more than green. This work is like looking at the photograph.
Happy New Year everyone!
There’s a realism here with a sort of enhancement, like everything is in it’s place, clean and tidy and pleasing. The water looks good enough to swim in and I can’t help wanting to take a journey down the stream and beyond. Interesting how it has for me a fantasy element but also very grounded in the real. Just love the bold and confident choices of color and shape. For example the wheat like grass, though soft takes a prominent place. The trees, though remarkably clean and somewhat symetrical draw me in with their power and drama. Really love this piece.
How awesome to be able to view this painting daily. I simply want to sit on the bank, listen to the water, the leaves sighing in the breeze. And yes, this is worthy of inspiration.