Last week I took part in the annual Paint Garstang plein air painting competition. This year I decided to use the post impressionist painter Cezanne as inspiration for my piece. In particular I have been interested in how Cezanne paints trees and the landscape. I used The following paintings Montagne Sainte-Victoire 1885-1887 Cezanne, Landscape with Viaduct : Montagne Sainte-Victoire 1885-1887 Cezanne and Tall Trees at the Jas de Bouffan, 1887 – Paul Cezanne for inspiration.

In preparation for the event I undertook a transcription of Tall Trees at the Jas de Bouffan, 1887 – Paul Cezanne  during a session at my art group, The Thursday Art Club in Pendleton. I spent the day studying the painting and trying to work out how he painted form by building planes of colour rather than blended gradients. Below you can see my attempt at recreating Cezanne’s Tall trees.

On the day of Paint Garstang I found an inspiring tree to paint next to the river. I liked the tree’s forked trunk and I also liked the composition of the tree on the left hand side foreground of the painting much like in Montagne Sainte-Victoire. Being next to the water with more trees in the distance added depth and helped the eye travel across the painting.

I started off the painting using planes of colour in the style of Cezanne and slowly built up the image over 4 hours, incorporating the changing light when applicable.

I was pleased when a few members of the public and other artists recognised Cezanne as an influence on my work. I didn’t, however, want to just create a direct copy of Cezanne’s style and so incorporated some other elements I’ve been inspired by recently. I used dark contour lines to separate areas of colour. This is reminiscent of cloisonnism, a technique employed by another post impressionist I have been inspired by this year, Gauguin. Cézanne also used outlines, especially in later works, but my outlines tend to be bolder.

I was also inspired by Fauvism and artists such as Terence Clarke who use non literal colours to convey a feeling or energy rather than to depict reality.

I am pleased with my final painting and have enjoyed the process of studying Cezanne’s treatment of trees and the landscape. I have also enjoyed the challenge of combining different art styles to create something that is in my own voice- combining structural planes of colour like cezanne, strong outlines and a warm, expression-full palette like the fauvists.