TREES 



93 



Sharp emphasis of the contrast between light and shade brings 

 a crisp liveliness into a composition that assures its distinction 

 and interest, under all conditions and in all seasons and weather. 

 Every means by which such emphasis can be made ought always 

 to be taken advantage of. A pool of water in the midst of dense 

 shade, yet so placed as to catch the light and reflect it, is perhaps 

 the most striking example of emphasized contrast, and well 

 illustrates the point. 



In this connection it is well to remember that still water greatly 

 intensifies any effect, reflecting as it does shade, or sunlight, or 

 sky expanse. Especially is this true of shade and the gloom 

 that results from it or accompanies it. Deeply shaded water 

 becomes black to the eye, and correspondingly suggestive of 

 dark unpleasantness. 



Trees vary greatly in their effect of shade, the variation being 

 due usually to their leaf form. For be it noted that the amount 

 of shade with which a tree impresses its beholder, is not the 

 amount of shade which it casts, but the amount which it holds. 

 Looking out upon a landscape, it is not the shadows under the 

 trees which meet the eye only a very small proportion of those 

 are seen at all but the depth of shade which lies among the 

 leafiness of the tree's head. This, therefore, is the shade which 

 must be considered with trees, in their relation to a picture or 

 composition. Elms, while casting a perfect shadow, do not give 

 the impression of as dense shade as maples, because their leaves 

 are differently shaped and smaller. The sky shows through an 

 elm top, but rarely through a maple and almost never through 

 a horse-chestnut, a catalpa or any other large-leafed and densely 

 furnished species. 



In sharp contrast to these heavy trees is the white birch, so 

 delicate in leaf and color that it is hard to associate it with 



