Life by the River: Mastering the Art of Simplification in Painting

By lindywhitton on July 7, 2024

Postcard No 11

Sometimes I can be a bit of a detail painter. If there's a jetty I like to get all the pylons just right and definitely the rigging on a yacht should be as it is in reality but that can feel a bit restrictive so today's little postcard is a lesson on leaving stuff out!

This is the view from the Flood Road corner looking upriver to the Huonvile bridge in the distance. There's also a boat hire business on the riverbank. I kept those raeas to the absolute bare minimum of detail. Just a line for the bridge and a couple of white blobs for the boats.

When to simplify and what to leave out is a big question. Here my interest was in the wildflowers in the foreground so that's where I put what limited detail there is. Even here I've kept it simple shapes and some directional lines with a permanent ink marker to suggest grasses.

I took a bit of an artistic liberty with those flowers because they're not there at the moment but I remember them from summer so in they went! Their white petals echo the white of the bridge and boats and help tie the two areas together.

Simplifying supporting areas and keeping the detail in the main are of interest helps to tell the viewer what's most important and adds clarity to your artistic message.

Learning to leave some stuff out and add in other elements to help create a painting that best expresses the message, mood or feeling you're aiming for is a really valuable skill. If you're a details person then it can take some practice to let go so next time you're painting ask yourself: Does this need to be here ? Does it add to the main idea? Will the painting be better without it? Could I add in another tree to balance the composition? Can I mass that group of objects into one shape? Keep asking those sorts of questions until leaving out some details becomes a natural part of your design process.

Try taking a subject and making 2 small paintings , one with all the details and the other with details limited to the main area of interest. Notice how the focal area is so much more impactful and the artistic message clearer in the less detailed painting.

Are you a details artist or are you happy to take a more impressionist and minimalist approach to your subjects?