Forest Green. Leonard Koscianski, 8″x6″, tempera on panel, 2012.
Forest Green is a small painting, in egg tempera, on a gessoed, wood panel. It is very precise in detail, but is not realistic. The egg tempera medium uses thin brushes, so it is conducive to detailed painting. At some points, it was painted using a magnifying glass. This scene is composed primarily of a lush green landscape of trees, with a white panther stalking across the foreground, and an illuminated cave under the trees. The landscape background is based on a 16th painting by Lucas Cranach.
The style is Postmodern in that it appropriates styles from the past and recombines them to create a contemporary image. It is dreamlike – more expressive, and surreal than realistic. There is a flow to the leaves and branches that creates a sense of movement and energy. It’s as if the leaves and branches are being stirred by the wind, it also expresses the animal energy, and motion of the white panther. The painting is green overall, however, there are many shades of green, ranging from a pale yellow, to a dark almost blue.