Paint it Black...

or... 'Rocky Mountain Bye'

There were several things I really liked about this painting, before I gessoed the entire canvas black! 

One was the tree canopy... the leaves....  another, the black edges peeking out here and there. I liked that concept. 

One mistake I made with this painting, was tackling a new style without a reference photo on a HUGE canvas ...what was I thinking?

Whenever I changed my mind on a composition element, it was ridiculously time consuming to make the change throughout this gigantic canvas... and then my AAADD* would kick in, making painting a chore (painting should not be a chore!) 'til I finally said "enough!".

But the biggest reason (besides not having a reference photo) for starting over on this big canvas was I simply decided I didn't want a giant Colorado landscape in my living room. This painting is for our home and this canvas is meant to go back to the same area it's hung for 10 years. It's was an (unfinished) ocean scene for 3 years, and I didn't know how much I liked having a waterscape in that spot 'til it was gone. The forest was pretty, but it wasn't water.

This poor ole canvas has been gessoed over 3 times before. It's first two incarnations were colorful abstracts, then it was the simple (unfinished) sea scene. Each time I brought the Colorado landscape in from my studio to see if I liked the colors in my living room's east light, and I'd find myself wishing I'd stuck with an ocean theme. When I mentioned this to Brian, he simply said, go with your feelings. 

Wow. Duh. I couldn't get the black gesso on the canvas fast enough. (except for a few parting photos of the spots I liked). At the time I decided to gesso the whole darn thing, I was happy with most of what I'd finished on the painting... so I took photos of the parts I liked and will use those ideas in future works.

This time, with a reference photo in hand, and a whimsical patchwork umbrella idea brewing in my head, I started this giant canvas's newest life. An homage to my hometown, Coral Gables and to the beach... my ocean. I miss the ocean.

This is definitely a work in progress. The umbrellas will all be COLORFUL, the sand almost white, and I think as soon as I'm done posting this,  those silly cartoonish clouds are going to float right on out of the painting. 

I'm trying to channel a soft, old fashioned vintage post card feel with this. Wish me luck.

 

Thanks for visiting! ... and if you like to see what this giant canvas (finally?) ends up being, please consider becoming one of my blog followers.

*AAADD- age accentuated attention deficit disorder  :o)