Boy in the Yellow Raincoat

A woodland walk where colour and texture do the storytelling

Artwork by Catherine Knee

When I finished this painting I hated it. Like, really hated it. You know when you put the brush down and look at it and think, “oh no, that’s awful”? That was me. But then the next morning I walked back in, saw it in different light and thought… hang on a second… I actually really like it! How weird is that? Clearly my brain does an overnight reset that my hands haven’t caught up with yet.

I think my recession is a bit better in this painting than it usually is, which is saying something because I normally struggle to make distance look believable. The pathway could still do with some more practice though. Mine always end up looking like they’re either too flat or just a strip of brown that doesn’t want to go anywhere. But this time it feels like it has a bit more depth, so I’ll count that as a win.

I do like how I managed to get the tree trunks looking. I love how textured they look.

There’s part of me that thought the painting might look better if there was a little dog walking along with the boy, but honestly, I wasn’t confident enough to try adding one yet. Can you imagine if I’d gone for it and ended up with a mutant blob-dog ruining the whole scene? No thanks! I’ll save dogs for when I’ve had more practice.

I stuck mostly with shades of green, some brown, and then that punch of yellow for the coat. The effect works though, because the boy stands out in the middle of all that forest texture. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself.

Overall, I think this is one of those paintings that surprised me. I didn’t like it at first, but then I warmed to it. That probably says more about me than the canvas. But hey, isn’t that the point of sharing these? To show the journey, the missteps, the surprises, and the fact that even if I think it’s rubbish today, I might change my mind tomorrow.

Inspiration

I saw some forest paintings online where the greens faded to a yellow background and wanted to try one out.

Want to see another painting where I worked on trees?
👉 Check out Autumn Squirrel
Interested in what else I create?
👉 See my photographic art here
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👉 Click here
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Boy in the Yellow Raincoat Acrylic Painting by Catherine Knee shows a textured forest path with layered green trees fading into golden light and a small figure walking into the distance.

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