Diane McClary: Palo Verde Trees

Palo Verde trees, like Smoke trees, Aspens, Birch, and more, have foliage that is hard to paint and still describe the tree accurately.

In addition to the foliage, though, the Palo Verde has a gnarly, twisting trunk, and is at its most beautiful when in full bloom and covered with tiny yellow blossoms.

In this video Diane demonstrates and explains in detail how to capture the “gesture” of the Palo Verde trunks.

She gives a short lesson on the challenges of using yellows and how to save (or prevent losing) your lightest yellow highlights, as well as painting the greens of the Palo Verde trunks and foliage in every shade of warm to cool, as well as dark to light.

There is much to be learned about the importance of color values and temperatures in this video.