Painting From Hell

Looking back at my first year of posts on this blog, you would think I am never satisfied with any work I do. But that is truly not the case. I just always leave room for improvement. This painting, however, has been one that I do call The Painting from Hell. I started it over a year ago for one of Kevin's Saturday class assignments. I was happy with the block-in, but from there it went totally down hill. Every now and again I would pull it out and look at it and shake my head. How it did not end up in the trash is beyond me, because I know I gave it careful consideration.

Working with the gray "mother" color for Kevin's class in October, and his suggesting we continue working on that theme until January, I thought this was a good candidate for that assignment. It was a wet, foggy morning so one way to achieve that would be with gray added to every color. I ended up using the sludge from the bottom of my brush cleaning can, as he had mentioned that some artists will do that. It is more brownish than gray but the theory is the same. I am no longer embarrassed to show this piece and I will report back after class next Saturday to see what the critique yields. Just the look on my husband's face after I showed him the new and improved painting was enough to tell me I was on the right track. And then he wanted to see it in a frame (I have not done that yet) made me a feel yet more encouraged. He, of all people, knows my struggles and I think he may have even agreed that if it went in the trash it would be no loss. I am sure Kevin will give me some sage advice to improve it yet again. Gotta love the process.