Sunday I drove over to the Sloan Street neighborhood in Roswell. This is one of my favorite places to paint houses_a subject I use to firm up my confidence. Over the last year I’ve painted here a half dozen times and I’m drawn to the well kept and restored 1800’s homes in the area. They are simple, but well proportioned and for the most part original. This view of 25 Sloan St. was an easy find with it’s striking green contrasting the orange fall leaves. I’m a sucker for fences too and although I know they are hard to paint and have a potential for looking busy I just cant resist them. I spent five hours on this — too long again but in the end I was pleased with the light. Lately I’ve been concentrating on the shadows and really trying to catch that feeling of sunlight as it defines my subjects. The sun was in and out all day and I did adjust my shadows late repainting that front so I could work out all the details without trying to remember how they looked hours before. With a thick paint this can be problematic but I just scrape the old paint off or load more on. I’m enjoying the thicker paint.
I spent Saturday on the river but both painting ended up looking off so I did some retouch – again not the best thing to do. Usually you just don’t have the information you need to do it effectively and without turning them into studio paintings. If I get them to an acceptable state, I will post them later.