Leaves, branches, canopies and shadow as subject, pointillism as technique. This collection of paintings of foliage brings together original works by Marcel Straver: from lush summer greens and explosive autumn trees to birch canopies against a blue sky and shadow patterns on the ground, all painted in his distinctive bold pointillist style. Would you like to buy a painting, or have you spotted a work you would like to see in person first? Use the ‘take an option’ button and Marcel will get in touch as soon as possible. Interested in commissioning a unique or personal work? Call or email for the possibilities (see Contact).
See also: Info Paintings.
Foliage is never merely background in Marcel Straver’s work. Leaves, branches, canopies and the interplay of light and shadow within them are, for him, fully valid subjects deserving the same attention as a wide landscape or a portrait. In the mass of a crown, the structure of a birch or the shadow that leaves cast on the ground, there is just as much to see as in the broader picture.
This collection includes works such as Autumn Extasy, Birch Quartet, Shadow Show and Fairy Forest. Every work is an original and available directly through the website. Commissioned paintings are also possible.
Leaves and canopies have been a recurring element in painting for centuries. As part of a landscape, as a study in their own right, or as a frame within which something else takes place: foliage has always played a dual role. It is simultaneously subject and atmosphere.
What makes foliage so compelling is the combination of repetition and variation. Each leaf resembles the next, yet together they form a complex, living whole that constantly moves and shifts in colour with the light and the seasons. That complexity calls for a technique that does not try to record every detail literally, but instead captures the whole.
Marcel Straver’s bold pointillist technique is ideally suited to painting foliage. Short brushstrokes in different shades of green, combined with yellow, brown and blue, build up the texture of a canopy without needing to paint every individual leaf. The result is an image that is recognisable as foliage but at the same time reveals something essential: the rhythm, the mass, the light playing through it.
Autumn Extasy shows an autumn tree in full colour, the canopy an explosion of red, orange and yellow against a dark background of branches. Birch Quartet presents four birch trees with their characteristic white trunks and light, airy crowns against a blue sky. And Twilight Trees plays with the silhouettes of trees in the last light, the canopies dissolving into the dusk.
Where there is foliage, there are shadows. And shadows are for Marcel Straver just as interesting as the object casting them. In Shadow Show, three leaves and their shadow pattern on a pointillist surface are all that make up the image. It is an abstract yet immediately recognisable work that shows how shadow can create form, rhythm and texture.
Concrete Cut goes a step further: grass and plants growing along a concrete edge, with sharp blue shadows falling across the surface. It is a detail of the outdoor environment that you would normally barely notice, but which Marcel transforms into a powerful image full of contrast and colour.
Foliage changes more than almost any other subject with the seasons. Spring brings the soft, light green of new leaves. Summer offers lush, deep green. Autumn transforms everything into warm reds, oranges and yellows. And in winter only the branches remain, graphic and bare.
That variation is clearly visible across this collection. Fairy Forest shows an enchanted woodland in vivid, almost magical colours, somewhere between summer and fantasy. Hydrangeas captures the rich purple and pink blooms of hydrangeas, lush and full. Yellow Carpet shows trees above a yellow carpet of flowers, light and colour in perfect balance. And Perfect Peace shows a bare winter branch, two doves pressed close together, quiet and still.
Paintings of foliage bring nature into a home in a way that is both calming and lively. The green and warm tones of leaves complement a wide range of interior palettes, from modern and minimal to warm and organic. A large foliage painting works like a window to the outside. A smaller study of leaves or shadow adds an intimate and unexpected detail.
Would you like to see a work in person before deciding? Take an option via the painting’s page and Marcel will get in touch to arrange a viewing. For a commissioned painting inspired by your garden, a favourite tree or a particular season, please get in touch via the contact page.
