Here are some finished works and works in progress from my Saturday morning class. I hope that everyone is having a great week.
For the past few weeks, we've been talking about looking carefully at a photograph if you are going to use it for reference material for a painting. It's your opportunity to as yourself if you want to put "everything" that you see in the photo, in your painting. More often than not, it's best to use your artistic license to either leave something out, or add something that is needed.
I fell into this same trap yesterday when I was working on a new impressionistic palette knife painting of an old boat that was abandoned on a small island. I took the photograph myself when I was in the Keys several years ago. I decided to leave out some trees, but I hadn't noticed the placement of an old mooring log. I just painted it where it was in the photo. When I put it up on the easel, I realized that it took away from the overall feeling of the painting. Fortunately, it wasn't dry. I scraped it off and painted it closer to the right side of the canvas. Of course I had to paint in leaning to the right, which lead the viewers eye right out of the painting! I scraped it off again and I'm getting ready to paint it for the third time. Just thought I would share to let you know that I "practice what I teach".
