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Find here news about my work and observations and incidents that happen while out painting. Double clicking an image will open up a larger-view slide show. Thanks for visiting.

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Changing a Concept and Adjusting a Painting in Progress


I want to try to make the work (and mistakes) I'm undertaking relatable to my students, so I thought I'd share a recent change of plan I exacted on a painting.

I last wrote about painting along Runnemede Avenue in Lansdowne.  I'm still painting there, and had planned to do another canvas to go along with this piece to create a diptych:




Work in progress along Runnemede Ave. I was planning to add a second canvas of the same size to the left side depicting a neighboring duplex.

You'll see I started to draw along the edge to keep the scale the same as the painting above.

Here I begin blocking in the shapes. 


So I got as far as what you see above, but two things happened.

One was that I wanted to include the entire building (a duplex) as opposed to cropping it, in part because the architecture fascinates me, as well as the two different shades of green in which the building is painted.  I also noticed that the forsythias had begun to bloom and was imagining that I would like their yellow color agains the green structure.

The second thing that happened was that I heard the weather forecast: we were due for snow.  Possibly a lot of snow. If there is one thing that I love (and don't often get to paint) it's snow. So I let go of the idea of creating a diptych and decided to make an independent canvas.  I've noticed that I have a default scale that I tend to use for buildings, so it really forced me to concentrate to get everything small enough to fit on my canvas. 


You may see the previous drawing wiped away as I re-considered what I wanted to achieve with this painting.


Satisfying and different for me to work smaller in the architectural drawing; I liked being able to zoom out and capture more of the landscape.  The snow did not disappoint!

In progress....