#3

#3
18 hours
oil on board
16x20

Ok, so I am already beginning to deviate from the one a day format. Oops! I started this painting thinking I would do it in one day and it ended up taking two and a half days. So I may need to rethink the title of this blog and/or project. Going forward I plan to attempt (notice I said 'attempt') to stick to the one a day format, but I can already see that is going to be a challenge. The good thing about this project is that I feel looser and everything is flowing more, which is why I wanted to do it in the first place. Something else I have noticed is that I often do better when I plan less, when I stumble upon a subject that inspires me and I can set up and begin working immediately, feeling energized because I feel inspired, rather than the opposite which is how I was feeling about my set ups before I started this one. If I don't feel inspired I tend to just sit there feeling bored. Note to self.

detail

1 1/2 hour block-in

This shows how I am adjusting my method due this project. I used to do a more fully developed block in, let that dry for a day and then paint additional layers on top. The benefit of that approach is that I can relate to the overall block in when I paint the smaller areas. Here, I am moving faster, so I find that step unnecessary. As long as I can establish my darkest dark, lightest light, some basic color relationships and basic proportions, then I can 'wing it'. After all, it doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to work well.

This is the back room of the house. We are slowly fixing it up. We recently pulled up all the linoleum down to the sub floor. There is a cardboard type layer still stuck to the wood floor, which you can see here. I didn't need to arrange the set up, instead I created a composition from the room as I found it. The only item I 'arranged' is the yellow drill in the back left. I added that later because I just liked it in the picture and felt it contributed the color arrangement of my composition.

Ok. I felt I should include this because it was the original #3. I consider it a failed painting. This is about three hours work, then the light changed rather dramatically and I didn't really like the composition anyways. So I abandoned it and considered that day a wash.