New Years Day-Roxborough

New Year's Day- Roxborough State Park, 16x20, oil on panel

So Here We Go Again. I had just decided to not do anymore 'before and afters' on my blog. Afterall, I consider myself a 'professional.' Professional artists don't make mistakes of such an egregious nature. Of do they? I know this artist does.

2 or 3 years ago version

But then last night I had a call from a dear friend of mine. She is also an artist and I value her input and her eye. As we were talking she mentioned how helpful she found my 'before and after' posts. That they contain valuable information. Jeez Louise. Now what? I laughingly told her how I had just vowed to do no more of those as I spent the last week or so excitedly redoing paintings I found to be flawed in one way or another. Some of them I wasn't even sure what it was that bothered me but I just knew they were  not for public consumption. I was telling how much fun it was to all of a sudden 'see' with such clarity what was wrong in a number of these 'face to the wall' paintings.

Here is one such failure. The bottom one was done from a photograph (yes, you read that correctly. A 3.4 x 5' photograph to be precise). This scene is from before digital cameras if you can even remember back that far. I came across it as I was culling my old morgue file. Before throwing this photograph away I decided to paint it. From a photograph. Like I used to. How we did that is so hard to fathom these days.

Let me start with the fact that the shadows are not united in form. Add to that the fact that the grasses are so bright against the purple and are not reading as they should; that some of those plants are in fact, in the shadows. If I remember correctly, I was in a hurry when I painted the original. Looking back I do see that the photograph is brighter like the original version is. So at least I got that right. That dark bullseye purple shadow in the middle did nothing but detract from the whole, drawing your eye right to it. How did I miss that?

In the new version my first step was to change the sky color. I darkened it down a wee bit in value and put some violet in it. Then on to unite that shadow shape and tone down the purple, adding value and temperature shifts within the shadow. Adding a variety of plants-they are not all grasses! In the plants I added greens and cooler yellows and some deep reds as well as keeping some of the oranges and warmer yellows. I remember that originally I wanted the deer to blend in to the scenery and now on this version I want them to stand out. Even though it is not overall as bright and sunny as the original, I believe the new toned down version reads better overall. And if I did not show the original you would not know the difference. It is always a crap shoot redoing a painting. Always someone who prefers the old vs the new. But though I may still decide to brighten it up and add more warmth to it I am much happier with it now.

The Path Less Taken

I am back! It has been awhile. It isn't that I haven't been painting. It is that I have been unable to believe that anything is finished...is that being stuck? Or is it just that I have been too distracted with other projects that this area of my life has suffered? If I am honest, it is both. It has been a summer of electricians, contractors, energy auditors and getting roommates. In all honesty, that is enough to keep anyone very busy.
Here is a painting I did last week; another one from my series from my trip to Milos, an island in the Aegean where I went this past Spring. This little seaside path to the sea is in Pollonia.

My son said he really liked it but he wants to see where the path leads. So I may just do a companion piece, but my thought is it leads to the sea and we all have our ideas about what that looks like. That being said, I must admit that the Aegean Sea is like no other I have encountered!

For me it is more about the journey than the destination. It is a sunny day with the threat of a cleansing rain, the island is abloom with spring flowers, and the sea beckons.

After adding the photo above, the image seemed too light. Some of that is from the lighting conditions when I took the photo. But it made me think it wasn't dramatic enough. I put the painting back on my easel this morning and redid the sky as I wanted the piece to have real feeling to it. The only other thing I did to it was to redo the dark hedges along the the horizon line. I wanted them to read more of a unit. Other than those changes the rest is the same. The photo below is darker, taken inside at my easel but is truer to the original than the washed out image above.

Looking for a Title, 12x16, oil on linen panel. Available. Contact me for information

After wrapping this up I blocked in the companion piece. It is the same size, same surface but I am going for a more abstracted landscape approach. Let's see if I can pull it off. I am happy with it so far. Here it is:

Roughed in companion piece