We’ve spent the past five days looking at branches, real and artificial, and you’ve probably started to notice a few things.
Branches in art and design are a huge simplification of the real thing. Living branches are pretty complicated. Just as we say ‘you can’t see the wood for the trees’ we could say ‘you can’t see the branches for the twigs’ or something similar.
To be creative with branches you usually have to simplify. To edit. To reduce them to their essence.
Tree, Henri Matisse, 1951
Here are some suggestions for weekend projects to deepen your branch-skills and appreciation.
Looking at (on - or offline) art collections
Investigate how artists in a particular period, art movement, location depict branches
Focus on how branches are used in the art you’re looking at. What is their function? Are they simply a background filler? Do they add to the mood? Do they amplify the style? Are they used to give direction? Something else entirely?
Focus on the treatment of branches by a single artist. Do they vary their depiction of branches? How important are they in their work? Two artists who are particularly interesting to look at, when it comes to branches, are Piet Mondriaan and Henri Matisse.
Tahiti Landscape, Henri Matisse, 1931
Creating your own work
Collect branches and twigs from a park or other wooded area. Take them home and photograph them on a white background, to highlight their structure. If you manage to collect lots of different types you can even create a small collage or series.
Revisit the podcast and blog focusing on how branches are used a compositional device. You can find them here. Create a series of photographs or other artworks using branches to shape your composition - for example, as a diagonal divider. You can get inspiration from the Japanese Ukiyo-e prints, but feel free to do your own thing.
Draw branches. This really slows down your eye. Schematically, in an ornamental kind of way. Or realistically. Or both!
Aren’t branches a bundle of joy?
Enjoy playing with them this weekend and do share your branched creations on Twitter or Instagram, using the hashtag #kramerseye.