Lean-to
Posted: January 19, 2022 Filed under: Uncategorized 59 CommentsIn the woods near my house, someone has been constructing these makeshift lean-to shelters. They appear and disappear from month to month, and I wonder who the architect is. They’re quite beautiful, especially in winter. I painted this quite large (Arches CP 16″ x 20″) because I wanted to include all the details that make the overlapping branches so interesting. It’s a little more detailed than my usual way of working, but the subject seemed to require that.
Shari Blaukopf's Sketchbook 
You have beautifully and expertly captured this winter scene. Very inspiring!
LikeLike
Laura, thanks so much.
LikeLike
Absolutely gorgeous! I love your winter scenes but this one takes the cake. It is stunning.
LikeLike
Bernadette, thank you so much! I had fun with this one.
LikeLike
I’d say influenced by Etienne-Joseph Gaboury but he was influenced by something like this originally.
LikeLike
Interesting. I was thinking more like Andy Goldsworthy, although a little messier.
LikeLike
Yep, sure looks like a lean-to, Certainly has to be humad-made, or a very bright ‘Canadian Monkey.’
LikeLiked by 1 person
Definitely Canadian!
LikeLike
More great work Shari, congrats!
LikeLike
Bill, thank you!
LikeLike
This is so…luminous! I’m taking your online course right now, Sketching Boats: Simple Solutions for a Complex Scene, so I’m thinking about how aspects of that strategy would work for complex subjects like your beautiful winter scenes. This is really something, so much color in those branches.
LikeLike
Kathryn, thanks for having a look, and for taking the courses! The simplification and limited palette I teach in the Sketching Boats course would definitely be applicable in this scene.
LikeLike
You can make even a bunch of branches a beautiful painting!!! Thank you for sharing with us!!
LikeLike
Thanks for having a look Audrey!
LikeLike
Many, many years ago when I was a kid in Michigan I would make lean-to’s in the winter in the nearby forest. No reason, kids don’t need a reason.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So true Rene.
LikeLike
This is beautiful, Shari. The way you painted each individual branch–it’s a beauty!
LikeLike
Thanks Lois!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lovely!
LikeLike
Thanks Marsha!
LikeLike
So simple and beautiful!!!!
LikeLike
Thanks Gretta.
LikeLike
Your winter scenes, especially with the sunlight are the BEST! Thanks for sharing
LikeLike
Thanks Tami!
LikeLike
This is a beautiful rendering Shari and lovely placement of the quinn golds (?).
How wonderful to come across such whimsy in your daily walks, in the bleak midwinter…..very happy-making I’m sure.
LikeLike
That same little forest that I walk through every day has given me so much to paint. If you saw it you would wonder how because it’s so small, but it is indeed a little spot that makes me happy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is a really pretty painting.
LikeLike
Thank you Sandi!
LikeLike
Shari, your winter paintings are wonderful! This one is more detailed- I wouldn’t even know where to start, all those branches! Love it!
LikeLike
Thanks Linda. In terms of where to start, I think I painted the shadows on the snow first.
LikeLike
It is lovely!
LikeLike
Thanks Cindy!
LikeLike
So beautiful Shari! I love your shadows and the snow looks so lucious. What is the color or mix you have been using for shadows and snow?
LikeLike
Thanks Marilyn. I’ve been using the same mix for snow for a long time. Cobalt + Cerulean + a bit of Quin Rose or Alizarin.
LikeLike
Hi Shari, we have then here in my local woods in Surrey, UK , too. Someone starts one, people add to it then someone starts another one nearby and the branches gradually get moved to the new one day by day! They’re not covered in snow though!
LikeLike
Joyce, I love that idea of collaboration. Perhaps that’s what’s happened here too.
LikeLike
Hi Shari
I love the mauve colours you’ve used in this painting. On the matter of the lean to shelters – check out YouTube on this one if you’re curious. The Sasquatch/Bigfoot build structures like this throughout America and Canada in wooded/forested areas. There is plenty of video footage regarding this.
Cheers Ian ________________________________
LikeLike
Ian, I will certainly check this out!
LikeLike
This is very like the structures my now-adult step-sons built in the woods around their chldhood home. Here and there one will appear when walking through the woods, sparking fond reminiscence for their father.
LikeLike
Gigi, I suspect these were built by neighbourhood teens who go to the woods to hang out in the evenings. But I have yet to see anyone building one of these. I guess I don’t venture into the woods at night : )
LikeLike
Shari, I really like this painting. Great color and texture in these trees & branches.
Thank you!!! It is interesting that yesterday I happened to visit one of your paintings of trees
in winter — the one with the old wire fence.
LikeLike
Thanks so much Susie. I really got lost in the branches on this one.
LikeLike
Can’t stop staring at this one. Amazing.What was your palette?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Judy. I’ve been using the same mix for snow for a long time. Cobalt + Cerulean + a bit of Quin Rose or Alizarin. I also used some Quin Burnt Orange.
LikeLike
Shari, your winter scenes are beautiful! Thank you for sharing.
LikeLike
Thanks so much Connie. You know I love painting winter.
LikeLike
Beautiful work here Shari, so glad I have your winter tutorial to work on soon.
LikeLike
Thanks Gail!
LikeLike
I like how the collection of branches gives a strong movement to the left when most of the trees lean slightly right. This is really lovely. Great shadows too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Joan, that’s exactly what I loved about the composition when I saw it in the woods.
LikeLike
It gives me such pleasure to see your work show up in my email box. Thank you, and hugs!
LikeLike
Thanks so much for having a look Cat!
LikeLike
Wow, just wow. What wonderful soft colors you have pulled from the winter woods. I also love how you captured the bluish tones of the branches in shadow.
LikeLike
This is a beauty! Love the detail and colors. It really paid off!! Thanks!
LikeLike
Must be the same folks who build driftwood shelters on the beaches in Oregon (there I think it’s too make windbreaks!). I love how you handled the branches!
LikeLike
How beautiful and so three-dimensional!
LikeLike
Thanks Lynn!
LikeLike
I loved seeing your drawing and paint layers on your instagram story. Would love to see them recorded here.
LikeLike
Thanks Martha! Maybe one of these days I will do a step-by-step.
LikeLike