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| Terrain 36" x 36"
Terrain. When I painted this I thought I liked it. It looked like land viewed from above. Now I am not sure what I was thinking. It just looks kind of unfinished and it is going into the canvas paint over pile.
This one started with so much potential. It was one of the two I'd started in Flora's workshop and I was proud of where it was going--the potential of it. I was definitely reaching for something that I sensed was there, and alternately trying to have no expectations and going with the flow. This painting obviously got caught in the crosshairs of two diametrically opposed philosophies.
Below is the progression from where it started to where it ended up. I find it frustrating as a painter to have a vision of what I want to achieve but not know how to get the effects I'm going for. I think Terrain is a result of that confusion.
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The next left layer is somewhat interesting, I was using black lines but trying a little too hard to find that elusive something I wanted it to become. On the right, I tried to let go and do a bold move with a large swatch of pale teal. Didn't work.
The left layer seemed like it was starting to go somewhere. The lighter colors were effective in subduing the various shades of orange and terracottas, and toning down the wild turquoise blue hair and beard of the old man with the hooked nose. On the right, I'd reached a stage I liked. From here it was downhill as I ended up with the "finished" version above.
I am not someone who disses myself to get attention or sympathy, so that's not what I am doing here. It's my attempt to figure out why my painting took such a drastic turn into bland and uninteresting, and the fact I thought it was interesting and finished, is a conundrum. But the cool thing about painting is I can paint over something I don't like and since I still have a major learning curve I'll chalk this one up to experience.
