Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Spring At Little Lake 11" x 14" o/p
I used the same palette as yesterday for this painting. The only difference in the palette is that the final wash before painting was a light 'pinkish' colour. Signs of it can be seen around the boughs of the pines and in the under glow of the blue in the sky and in the water.
Usually, when I have finished painting outside, the painting is not touched again except to alter a small area or colour value. This may be done on site or later in the studio.
However, I did spend time on this piece after getting back to the studio.
Usually past experience has taught me that in some instances, I will end up repainting the whole picture. Thus, completely destroying the integrity of the plein air piece. The original "Wow"factor that made me want to paint the subject (scene) in the first place may now have been compromised. The freshness that once was, now seems to carry an over worked 'look'.
So much for repainting the "Wow" moment... It is gone !

Perhaps I should listen more closely to my own experiences... :-)
'til next...

12 comments:

Unknown said...

I love your choice of colors and your ability to brighten a scene.

jsicignano2.blogspot.com said...

Great colors. Still a WOW painting.

Frank A. said...

Hi Sheila..Nice to see your face again. :-)
Thank you for your comment and compliment....appreciated.
Sincerely hope that your painting is going well.

Take care..

Frank A. said...

Joan, nice to see you here and thank you for your generous comment.
I enjoyed your blog. They certainly do tend to take over, do they not ? :-)Glad to see that you will be spending more time painting. Welcome to plein air painting..I do not think that the learning curve will be very steap for you.. :-)

Do take care..

Carol Horzempa said...

I agree with Joan and Sheila, even though you worked on it in the studio it still looks fresh and colorful.

Frank A. said...

Hi Carol... I appreciate your opinion. Guess I had better take another look at this piece. Usually, it is a case of, " I wish I had left it alone."

Have a Great Day !

Unknown said...

Hi Frank,
I love the simplicity of this composition one horizontal; a couple of vertical and one diagonal make your oil compelling. Very nice coloring as well. I tend to agree with you that re working a piece is bad, however if you did not told us, i would never have imagine it was re worked. It stand on his own merits.

Frank A. said...

Thanks Mariano..nice to see that you are still here. :-)
Sometimes the little touch ups work well. It's the overworking (big areas that seemingly need mending)that "bugs" me mostly and not knowing when to quit. We always think that we can make it better. We then end up destroying all that we observed on site. It seems to me to defeat the reason for plein air painting in the first place. Of course, this just my humble opinion.

Nice to hear from you...

simoart said...

Hi
It is a beautiful painting. Love the colors on this great lake piece. Great work.

Keith Tilley said...

I agree with everyone else, this looks fresh and not overworked to me. Of course we don't know what the subject looked like.

Perhaps you should view the plein air pieces as sketches and not alter them too much. You could paint other, more finished versions, in the studio.

Frank A. said...

Thanks for your comment, Keith..

"Perhaps you should view the plein air pieces as sketches and not alter them too much. You could paint other, more finished versions, in the studio."

I understand what you are saying and what you mean here, Keith.
For the most part, I do view them as finished plein air pieces, (and not alter them TO MUCH )Therein lies the problem..it's the ones that recieve 'to much' in some cases.

The expectations of most patrons of my work is that of the plein air pieces.

Studio pieces for the most part are commission work.

Keep at those watercolours !

'til next...

Frank A. said...

simoart, Thank you for your generous compliment.
I enjoyed your blog. Not many things greater than a Mother's love and encouragement. God Bless !

Take care..