Well, this painting, a 42″ by 60″ canvas, is closing in on what may be its final appearance, at least in my head. I have the sky close to where I see it finishing, the village only needs some highlights here and there and the landscape is basically set in place.
My next move is to move into the last large area that needs paint- the waterway and the land on either side of it. I first go in with a manganese blue, a rich color that I can play off as I move along. I often use blue for water even though it seldom appears that way in nature. There seems to be a childish element that allows us to imagine or see blue as water. For me, it goes back to how the color plays off the other colors. The harmony produced is more important to me. I also start adding color to the bridge at this point, although I see it changing in color over the rest of the process.
From there it’s on to putting some color into the lower segment of landscape around the waterway and the structures. I start with a dark Hunter green which actually darkens this space with a real earthy almost black green tone. I like the way this sets everything off but am feeling it’s a little too deep and dark, almost flat in dimension. I think that I probably lighten this soon but I first transition back into the water where I start laying in a lighter blue over the darker manganese underneath. There is a bit of violet mixed with the blue I’m using which warms the blue just a bit. I feel like I’m close to where I want this to be at this point but there is still a little work ahead, especially on the water and the bridge.
I start by lightening the bridge so that it has more contrast against the blue of the water. I want contrast but not so much that the eye settles there. I next begin adding a little depth in the green of the landscape with a mix of cadmium orange and yellow, once more put on with a light, dryish brush. The technique with the brush is as though I’m dusting something off the canvas with short, quick strokes, leaving only a residual of pigment. This little bit of color atop the green makes a huge difference and I take this same color and technique into the water, really lightening the color so that it has a violet-slatey color, much less blue than it started. Here’s where I am:
So I’m near the end and I really like the feel so far with this painting- but… There’s always a but.
But I really feel it needs one more element beyond the village to bring it all together. A real object of focus. Like the tree or trees I mentioned in yesterday’s update. Or I could take one of the larger, centrally located structures and put even more highlight, more brightness on it.
I’m leaning toward the tree but this is the part of the process where the painting sits for a while in the studio and I look at it over the next several days. I’m consciously weighing all the elements in the painting to see if there is balance in the structure. Does it hold together as a composition and do all the elements and lines make sense, not make me stop and wonder why this is here or that is over there? As it stands, does it convey a wholly realized emotional feeling? Lots of questions.
So, I’m at a terminus and just have to put in some mind time. Soon it will be done…
Redtree Times 
I agree that something in the distance would enhance the sense of place that you have evoked so nicely here already. It’s also interesting to see the dappled blue light in the real windows of your studio off to the upper left and compare it with your obsessionist sky in the painting.
Thanks, Paul. By the way, that is not dappled blue sky but is light bouncing off the leaves of trees outside the studio. But I see what you’re saying and see how there is that transition from that to the painting, which is pretty cool.
Easy for me to envision a small tree to the right of the path at the far horizon. Or a figure, but scale would probably be an issue. I like the idea of arrival or departure that would convey, though.
When I reach this point with my work, I usually find myself debating if I want to do the usual thing, if one of my own solitary trees or whatever is what’s needed. Sometimes I feel like that’s old news, and I’m just doing the expected, taking the easy way out. But sometimes I’m guilty of giving that take too much weight, too. At least a couple long-finished pieces clearly seem now (in retrospect, of course) to lack a final element.
Parnilla suggests a steepled church there. Hadn’t thought of that, but I like it. Another focal point, but consistent with the piece as a whole.
Just our two cents, Gary. All the best!
Thanks, Mark. I really don’t know at this point what will be there but I am pretty sure there will be something. I like the idea of a steeple but I don’t know… It takes some thime to just let it soak in.
I really know what you’re talking about when you write of not wanting to do the same old thing, the expected move, when you reach a certain point in a piece. This has haunted me for years when I reach this point. I can’t even really describe how hard I fight against doing the same old thing, taking the easy way out, but it’s like there is an irresistible force pulling me ahead. I never knew how to describe this until I saw this on show Mystery! on PBS that described what I go through on a daily basis. I wrote about this in an earlier post so I’ll just quote what I said before:
“There was an episode of Mystery! on PBS starring Kenneth Branagh as Swedish detective Wallander. It was okay, nice production but nothing remarkable in the story but there was a part at the end that struck home with me and related very much to my life as a painter. Wallander’s father, played by the great character actor David Warner, was, like me, a landscape painter. Now aged and in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s, his son comes to him and intimates that he can’t go on as a detective, that he can’t take the stress. The painter then recalls how when Wallander was a boy he would ask his father about his painting, asking, “Why are they always the same, Dad? Why don’t you do something different”
He said he could never explain. Each morning when he began to paint, he would tell himself that maybe today he would do a seascape or a still life or maybe an abstract, just splash on the paint and see where it takes him. But then he would start and each day he would paint the same thing- a landscape. Whatever he did, that was what came out. He then said to his son, ” What you have is your painting- I may not like it, you may not like it but it’s yours.”
Again, thanks, Mark.
Everything brings me to the center of the painting: the curve of the river, the curve of the horizon and the nearly, formally balanced composition. I end looking toward the one bright house on the curve of the river, maybe ramp up the interest in this area, one boat on the shore? Perhaps stain glass windows on the building?
One element could change the whole direction, you’ll figure it out..
I think I’ll discuss it with some of my students on Monday, then we’ll see what you do, this has been a fun!
I can’t believe they hit Tex!!! I bet Joe is in furious.
bh
Thanks, Brian. I like the stained glass thought on that particular building. I’ve been tossing around whether I would use windows at all but perhaps one stained glass window. Hmmm… Hoping CC’s outing was just a blip…