The last of the Small Scales 'postcard' pieces for this year. There's a brief shimmering track which fits it quite well – 'Takk', from Sigur Ros.
I found this location a few years ago, but couldn't find a way to make it work. It's in north east Croatia, looking onto the flood plain near the confluence of the rivers Danube and Drava, and just up the road from the small village of Kopachevo (Kopačevo). It's a bright and breezy morning in October, and the leaves will be turning very soon.
It's not about the sky for a change – though the cirrus does add energy – but much more about the tree masses and open areas. I probably would have organised something using this image source a while ago, but wasn't happy with the area on the right; I felt the glimpse of the lake there somehow weakened the open 'heath' to the left. It was solved very simply though – by importing some trees from the next patch of woodland along to the left, and flipping them horizontally to make the light fit. That happy accident gave me the small 'V'-shaped tree in the foreground and the atmospheric curtain of trees behind it.
A bit of technical stuff. Along with the other two previous pieces, this is primed in grey, dot-gridded in gouache, and the composition drawn straight in with thinnish oil paint - using fairly opaque pigments initially, then thinner more transparent modifying layers. Running out of time, I employed more-than-I-usually-would cobalt driers in the latter stages (especially in the yellows), but these layers are so thin that I'm not that bothered about potential future surface damage. (I would be with thick paint, but certainly not here)
It turns out that this randomly found location - Kopački Rit - is actually an important European wetland, and is a designated nature park. I was interested in the reddish ground vegetation, and it turns out that these are the areas that are regularly flooded. This can be seen here – the same place at a different date. The waters can be seen more broadly from this drone view - Kopachevo village is straight ahead, where the smoke is rising from. However, if you rotate the streetview in the opposite direction - northwards - the 'red grass' in the painting is under the inlet just as the bend in the road straightens.
This beautiful setting has quite a lot of potential for development into a larger and more complex piece. I've a bit of catching up to do with works already in progress, but with all things being well I should be starting on this within a few months.
