When a Painting Just isn’t Done Yet: A Process Story

Jun 10

You know for me painting is always a “trial & error” gig. Sometimes I get it just right on the first pass, but more often than not, it takes work. Well, reworking and reworking. Here’s an example of that. Quite a while back, I painted a scene from Camp Bryan where my husband Frank and I spent a lot of time over the years. I have such fantastic memories from there, I enjoy painting scenes from those memories.

Oil painting of a yellow and green sky, an abstracted body of water in front, with blue and green, and a row of trees in the distance.

This first image shows the original painting. At the time I first “finished it”, I was pleased. Over time as I looked at it, the yellow bothered me. So I tried removing it. This requires getting the yellow out of the foreground as well.

Moody blue and green scene that depicts an oil painting of a body of water - Camp Bryan - with trees in the background and warm yellow sky.

This second image above is what I had at the end of the day I decided to “fix it”. Better. But it’s also a pretty boring painting. It needs something for drama and maybe a focal point. So the next day I did this…

Abstracted waterscape oil painting. We see a white sun with dramatic yellow sky in the background behind green trees. Then a body of blue green yellow reflective water.

Same colors. I just added the white of the sun. Yes, a white sun. We often think of the sun as yellow or orange, but if you look at it… it’s white. Maybe not as white as I have here, but white. Yet, in this painting, I believe it works. Now that’s a focal point! Then I put the reflections of the trees in the water. Better for sure. Am I done?

I have it hanging in my studio to study for a while. We’ll see if it’s finished.