Not Every Week is a Winner

Last week I painted and painted; sadly I am unhappy with my results.

Last week I was determined to paint, particularly as I had been travelling and then sick, missing 2 weeks of my painting time. Early in the week I chose to paint landscapes from photographs. Having reviewed the catalog of works in a show that I aspire to be in (someday), I was determined to paint a water scene. I noted that 35% of works in the show depicted water scenes. So I scrolled through my photographs to find a scene I thought would be good to put into a show, in a similar vein of those I'd seen in the big show.

I also wanted a more simple photo reference. I found an ok reference but the left side was dark and obscured by trees. I made a design decision to have a left land mass, smaller but similar to the mass on the right of the water. I also made a design decision to have a high horizon line, I wanted the water to have a strong presence. What greatly appealed to me was the bright yellow fall grasses. Also, the sky in the photo reference was blue, but I wanted to add a contrast to all the green so I made it an orange pink.  I had a grand vision for this, I am not sure I executed the painting as well as I wanted to.

Last week I also painted two portraits from life, I was not happy with either result. In both cases my colors were strong, I love my color! But there has to be more than color in regard to a good portrait. One portrait featured bright green and pink and those colors together were fantastically appealing. But, I did not capture her face and shoulders, I had wanted this to be one that I could put in a show but it honestly is not my best work. The other portrait had lots of orange color (background and flowers) which also was appealing. I could not get the eyes right and the hair which was pulled into a braid does not look right. Perhaps I need to take my photo references and work on these, or I can call it and these two works can go in the trash. I do not want to show either work here, no thank you! Both portraits remain in a TBD pile--I may or may not work on them.

The good from last week is that I did get in the painting time that I wanted. But, wow, I am disappointed in my results. I have got to be more focused and really get back to where I want to be as an artist. Perhaps this week I will be better!