Crossing the Finish Line

Finally... the finale... another painting crosses the finish line!

Do you ever feel this way about any of your paintings, like you are not sure if it is going to come together?. Some paintings seem to come easily and nearly paint themselves. One of my paintings that seemed to come together effortlessly is Day's End, shown in the side bar. Though it would be nice if all of them would be that easy; they are not. But if they were then maybe painting would lose it's sense of challenge and adventure. Oh and the mystery of wondering if a piece is going to work or not would be gone. I wonder if painting becomes boring for master painters who knowing everything, have nothing left to learn and the skill to perform all that they know with inspiration and creativity. I guess there is another sense of joy and mastery in being that skilled. For me, learning is a great adventure of life much like wondering what is around the next turn of the trail through the woods, or what is around the next bend in the river. I never want to stop learning and growing. But at some point mastery would be nice. All that said:

Introducing "Fields of Gold".  Though there were difficulties with this piece all along the way in bringing it to completion, I am happy that it is done and I enjoy the image. I wasn't sure of how to paint the wheat, but I started using lots of paint with both brush and knife and had a great time doing it. Then the wheat came together. The paint on this piece is very thick and sculptural, which made me a little uneasy that it wouldn't dry completely before scanning and smash some of the sculptural effects. But it worked out OK.  I hope you enjoy the piece and this commentary. Let me know what you are thinking.

Another Painting Start

This is the start for the final painting in the blog series  Getting Stuck. In the post, To Finish or Not to Finish, we considered the idea, that there are times when a painting just doesn't seem to work or maybe it just gets set aside because of other pressing deadlines. I gave "Quiet Warmth" as an example of a painting that even though it wasn't finished until a year later it ended up being chosen in three separate national shows. It really brought home to me the value in not giving up on a piece just because you don't have all the answers at the time. Look for a later time when you understand how to make that painting come together or you just feel inspired.

I can't remember when I started this painting. It was probably in the spring or fall of 2010. I really like the composition but did  not like the expression in the face and set it aside to do other things. Then I did another smaller piece titled "Bread Basket and Blue" from the same series and finished it in January, with the hope it would help me to finish this one. See the post Finishing Touches.

I needed to finish another piece to enter in a show. Which one of the three starts should I finish? After working on each of the three, this piece began to come together when I was able to improve the face and the background.

Here are a couple shots so you can see how the patterned wrap started as well as bringing other parts together. I started the wrap by under painting values and being mindful of what area's are warm and cool. And asking the questions of what planes were picking up cool light from the sky and hot light from the sun?







See Inspiration and Stages for how I painted the patterned wrap in Bread Basket and Blue. I attempted to do the same here, but because of an approaching deadline, I used alkyd paint in the wrap to help it dry faster. The trouble is, it was drying as I painted the pattern, so it wasn't as wet into wet as I hoped. It still came out nice and fits the light in this scene. Check in next time to see the final finished version and the name of this new piece.  ~Sheri