Sunday 3 May 2009

Disappointing Day

I set out yesterday morning to my favourite stretch of coast and decided upon painting a scene that I had tackled before. I was intent upon trying to improve on my last effort at this spot - result - disappointment as the finished piece does not have the same life or vibrancy of the previous attempt. Why? Well I think that my preparation was poor, in the sense that I did not do enough to prepare my palette of colours prior to starting the main painting process and as I worked I was trying to adjust and alter what was on the palette board with a lot of frustration. Hopefully lesson learned - a more disciplined preparation and a delay to the main painting until I'm happy that I have the correct colour range in sufficient quantities before me, that way I might develop better fluency and get enough paint onto the canvas. There's nothing worse than trying to eke out what you have to save mixing up more pigment.

Moral of this tale is telling in that it has made me think about what my next project will be. The next week will have me trying one or two demonstration pieces from books in my ever expanding library. There is a piece in a Kevin MacPherson book that might make a good starting point. If I manage to get it done I'll post it next week along with a note of the experience.



Souter - Oil on canvas board 12"x 10"

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