Forest in Monochrome by Richard Wieth is a black and white forest painting in oil that fills a wide horizontal canvas with tall, pale tree trunks. About six trunks run from the bottom edge past the top edge, spaced unevenly across the width. The two widest stand near the center and the others fall to either side, with a few thinner, darker trunks standing among them. Between the trunks, undergrowth and foliage break into patches of black, gray and white. There is no sky and no horizon, so the viewer stands inside the woods looking at the trunks rather than past them.
The painting uses black, white and the grays between them, along with the pale tone of the canvas ground. Richard Wieth lets value do everything that color would otherwise do. Deep blacks gather in the gaps between trunks and in the lower left corner. Thinned paint dragged across the surface makes the middle grays. The lightest notes are bright whites pushed in as small ragged shapes near the bottom of the canvas and between the trunks. The trunks themselves sit in the middle of that range, soft gray with darker edges that give them roundness.
The light reads as sunlight breaking through woods, though nothing is described in fine detail. Foliage is made of broad dabs, quick flicks and dry strokes where the brush skips over the weave of the canvas and leaves ragged edges. In some places the dark paint is wiped thin and smoky, in others it sits thick and opaque. The trunks are handled more calmly, in long vertical passes with a few small dark marks along their length. That contrast keeps the busy background from overwhelming the quiet columns in front of it. Up close the surface is lively and every mark shows, and from across the room the dabs settle into light and shadow among the trees.
The vertical trunks work like columns and set a slow rhythm across the canvas, while the restless marks between them keep the eye moving from one gap to the next. A viewer's eye tends to start at the bright center trunks, then travel outward through the dark and light passages on either side. The brightest whites sit low and toward the right, and the heaviest blacks sit low and toward the left, which balances the picture without making it symmetrical. Because the trunks run past the top and bottom edges, the scene feels larger than the frame. The signature, WIETH, appears in dark paint in the lower right corner.
Forest in Monochrome is 36 x 48 inches, oil on canvas, in a horizontal format. The canvas is gallery wrapped at 1 inch deep with hanging hardware attached, so it can go straight on the wall without a frame. Its neutral palette suits a living room, bedroom, home office, hotel or restaurant, especially above a sofa, bed or console. It sits well with natural wood, stone, leather, linen and one strong accent color. If you prefer a frame, a slim floater in black or natural wood keeps attention on the brushwork.
