Scots pines at Westonbirt and a simple way to paint light trunks with negative painting

I painted these Scots pines at Westonbirt Arboretum on a calm day, a favourite place for tree lovers in the Cotswolds. The arboretum spreads across about 600 acres with thousands of tree species, so there are many lovely glades where the light moves across the grass. I loved how the sun caught the pale trunks against the deep greens behind. It made a perfect subject for a quiet tree study.

In this scene I used negative painting. This means I paint the shapes around the trunks and leave the paper to show the light, then slowly build darker greens in thin layers. I let each layer dry before the next so the background gets deeper while the trunks stay clean and bright. It is a simple way to show sunshine and keep crisp edges on branches and foliage.

My mixes were fresh and limited to keep harmony. For the greens I used viridian, spring green, cobalt green, and touches of ultramarine and yellow ochre. For the trunks I kept soft warm greys with burnt sienna, burnt umber, a little lavender and neutral tint, and I saved a few tiny sparks with white paint. I also reached for cerulean blue, cobalt blue, alizarin crimson, cadmium red, light red, cadmium yellow, and sometimes quinacridone gold for small notes. Scots pine bark can look orange brown high up and darker near the base, so I hinted at that with a few strokes.