Today's painting contains several lessons. I wanted to branch out and do something a little different with this particular work and include certain aspects besides a barn. I started this painting around the 3rd week of May - it was on a Monday. It was the last painting I worked on that day and I was getting tired, so I rushed it. Multiple lessons here;
- Don't rush,
- Don't paint when you're tired,
- Who says you have to complete more than one painting a day in order to "accomplish" something?
The end result was a quick sketch of the under-painting in brown, the sky went darker than I wanted it to, and the barn looked horrible.
The next day, (and over the next several days), I almost started from square one. I reapplied the sky, reworked the grass as well as the dirt, and painted the "character" I wanted the barn to have. Yes, this barn is rather old. It does lean a little due to age, but has good bones - sounds like me sometimes.
The details I added took longer than I expected, but were well worth it. The trees, two horses, the fence, and the shadows had me flustered at times, but those details made me stop, process the challenge artistically instead of technically, and then move forward. I was thinking for a bit if I should add something to the background in the grass, but my instincts told me that I had plenty of focal points as it is. I touched up a few minor details like the foreground grass and called this painting done... at last!
Until next time,
The Happy Painter,
Jill
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