STARTING OVER

Sometimes an idea just doesn't work.


That's when you just wipe it out and start all over. You're not really starting over though, because you have a layer of paint left. It might be pretty muddy and murky, nevertheless, you have something to build on the next time you go at it.

Kinda sounds like life, doesn't it?

Things might not be working out at all, but you've got another layer of experience, another layer of knowledge and another perspective to use the next time you go at it.

On my art website, are these words.

"....it's not realistic to expect perfection from the first brush stroke to the last. A painting, like life, is created by making mistakes and correcting them as you go."

Today, I was trying something new and my attempt went from bad to worse. I used to get really upset when this happens.

"Think of the wasted paint," I'd say to myself.

Now I say, "Think of what I just learned. Next time, I'll know better."

I'm grateful to have learned this good life lesson.

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I thought I was finished with this post.  But I'm not.  Here's why.

The next day after wiping out the mess I'd made, I was looking at the canvas and wondering what I would/could do with it.  It was pretty dark...and a greenish blue...so I thought 'forest.'

With a splash of sunlight.

There just happened to be a puddle of sunlight on my palette, so I dipped a brush right in there and scooped me some up and said, "Let there be light!"  And there was light!  Right there!!!

And either a stream or a road...don't know which yet.  I don't have a plan...at all. This is exactly how I get myself into trouble...or lots of fun...depending on how you look at it.   

The painting  progresses.

I like this, for the most part...but of course, I wound up messing it up.  Now, I've got the river running right out of the picture on one side...a NO-NO, for sure!

Everything I did just seemed to make it worse.

I am getting very frustrated!

Although I really liked this one...and could have used my picture of it as a reference and try to get it back...I just keep making more messes.  So, I quit for the day.

In the middle of the night (of course), I figured out what my frustration is all about.  This painting was begun in a very loose, impressionistic manner and I am moving more and more toward it being more realistic...and  I'm nit-picking....a sure fire way to ruin something!  And most importantly, it was, in the beginning,  all about that tree.  The more I added, the more the tree got 'lost.'

So....hard as it was to do, this morning, I wiped out a lot of it and tried to get back to the loose brush strokes and freer style.

Here's where it is now.

I still have to get rid of the remnants of that big pine tree in the right foreground...but this is more what I had in mind when I started.  I sure hope I don't mess it up....again. 

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It's a couple of hours later and I have come to a  place where I feel pretty happy about the way it looks.   I might do a tad more to the bottom left rock...and I will need to sign it.  And there's something wrong with the right edge of th tree shape.  But for now, I am going to tell myself to STOP!  And I'm going to listen to myself.

It may not be my best-ever painting.  Heck, it might not even be a good one.  But I learned a lot doing this painting.  And I am very grateful for that.

name suggestions?

16 x 20

oil on canvas

P. S.    Different light conditions are responsible for some of the differences you see in these progression photos.  The last photo is a close as I can get it to the real thing.