Dead Tree

My latest work. I realized while reading yet another Turner book, that the works of his which pushed the boundaries past reality, were the ones I liked most. Yet it was those ones which my paintings were not heading towards - a sort of fudging between his early works and his late works. A stand off in the middle.
This is my latest attempt to head towards those later paintings. It is from an idea that I had before, of the dead tree in some rolling hills. The dead tree, as mentioned by some NZ Art Historian; Curnow or Francis Pound or someone, that it is New Zealand's symbol of the Roman Column of ancient times.

Alias: Dead Tree - The first stop. I carried on to almost finished, forgot to take any photos.

Alias: Dead Tree - The second stop. Bringing the white in and developed tree.

Alias: Dead Tree - Additions. Lightening bits, darkening bits.

30//03//07

I didn't like the way the tree was dominating, leaving the rest of it very flat with little going on. I was inspired by a Desktop Wallpaper I saw of a very flat landscape with a vast sky and a very small dead oak tree. It was beautiful. I wish to paint it one day, but gave it a go on here.
After scraping out the old tree and putting in the new one, it was missing something still. Because the original was a seascape, one couldn't build the ground in the same way. So I've added in the remnants of a No 8. wire fence.

Alias: Dead Tree - New tree and added fence. Possibly final setting.