Yesterday a woman came up to me while I was out painting and said “Oh how blissful —you must be so relaxed” Well, not really—it’s work. I look at it that way. I have a long way to go to get to my objective. Painting is rarely relaxing for me. I’m working out problems, getting things roughed in, trying to catch the light, finishing up. In essence, plain and simple I’m working. I love it, but it’s not relaxing. Many people don’t understand this, other painters do. This kind of attitude makes it easier to sustain my level of commitment, I have a job to do and I’m going to get it done—the best I can.
This weekend I painted at least 20 hours. If I was doing it full time I shudder to think the hours I would put in. The weather has been glorious —so make hay while the sun shines! Saturday I went back over to McFarlane Park with a composition I did a sketch of last week when I was there early in the morning. The shadow of the fence leads you right up to the brightly lit farmhouse bracketed by those huge ginkgos. This is 12 x15 and I think I took it just a bit too far, the shadows are a bit dark too. Not so with the other I did later in the day, a view up Farm Road featuring a white fringe tree. The color of this tree was a phosphorescent pale green—striking! And the little 9 x12 went together quickly and just the way I saw it.
Later in the day, I repainted one that I started a week back. It’s a view through a gate towards the stable on the property. It’s 12 x12″ and I used an oval composition with the branches of the overhead tree and shadows below completing the circular flow. Although better than it was, is not as impromptu as I like, that’s hard to master—I’m working at it!
Sunday morning I wanted to do a construction scene and I found this almost new diesel shovel nearby at a new home site. It ends up being a portrait with not much composition involved. Still, I enjoy doing this kind of thing if only for the color and change of subject.
In the afternoon I drove over to Mountain Park with the idea that the clouds would be pretty good. I worked on a rather large 18 x 24″ for nearly five hours. I was thinking it was done but when I got it home it just had no life to it so I’ll drive back over and give it some more light next time. The clouds were the focus of this and I was a bit too subtle here. Just got to hit ’em over the head with it. Might have been better to go vertical with it but I could not set up far enough back.
Fellow painter Leon Holmes is coming in this evening from Munich on his way to FLA for the Forgotten Coast gig. It will be fun to meet him. I’ll catch you up next time.