I debated over showing the progress of the large painting on which I am currently working. I know that I have done it it the past , especially with this style of work, but I almost felt like I wanted to keep this one more guarded. It feels kind of like pulling the curtain back on the little man working the controls which make him appear as a much more magnificent Wizard of Oz. Or maybe it’s like showing how the sausage is made– tasty but nobody wants to see it.
But whatever I thinking, in the end, I decided that I would show how this piece is moving. If the final product is not worthy, knowing how it came to be so won’t taint it and if it ends up being a good piece, nobody will care or remember.
Again, this is a 54″ high by 84″ (4 1/2′ by 7′) canvas that I have finally decided to start after 10 or so months of pondering it in the studio. Well, pondering is overstating it. Avoiding is probably closer to the mark.
This is the progress after about three days of roughing in the composition with red oxide paint and I am finally nearing the end of this this part of the progress. As I near the terminus where the landscape ends and the sky will begin, I have started roughing in with a piece of rouge chalk, trying to find that final silhouette that will stand out in the final product. I am hoping to finish this phase today.
So far, I am pleased. The elements all seem to work well together and the whole composition has a unity that I am looking for. This is vital especially in a piece of this scale where any element that lacks that sense of rightness will be magnified by the sheer size of the comsposition. I am really beginning to see how I think the painting will finally emerge and I am getting antsy, wanting to get beyond this initial phase. But as I said earlier, the key is to not jump ahead, not speed up at any point. If I make a shortcut now, it will change that final version dramatically.
So, I will be patient. But I must go. Gotta paint.
Redtree Times 