Tuesday, March 5, 2013

A Problem Solved

I've been away for the past couple of weeks enjoying my bi-monthly visit with my husband in this most crazy of years. The weather in Florida was constant torrential rain and painting my beloved dunes was impossible.
I came back home to this painting, that I thought was finished two weeks ago but still wasn't satisfying me.

I had been studying it trying to figure out why it didn't have the sense of immenseness I felt when I hiked the trail that spectacular day. Somehow the canyon seemed miniaturized. Also, the glowing red rocks which were the inspiration for the painting, had lost their significance.
I thought a cropping might be in order. Look what happens when the sky is cropped out.



Now the walls rise around the viewer as they did in reality and the red rocks and path have prominence again. Here is another cropped option.

It's not quite as radical but I didn't like the shape on the top left. Then I noticed the pale color of the sky just above the rocks on the right and a light bulb went off.  The value of the sky was wrong!  And the bright blue color was competing with the red rocks. Here is the final painting that just barely escaped the knife. I'm happy now. What do you think?


On Kaibab Trail - oil on canvas - 16x20
click here to purchase

2 comments:

  1. Interesting... Whenever I try different versions of a scene, I never know which is "best". I do like the one with the sky cropped out though.... (today at this particular moment... LOL)

    On a different note:
    I wonder... For some strange and unknown reason, I had lots and lots (really a lot) of visitors to my website today... among them you. I posted no new paintings nor did I send out a newsletter or new blog post I did nothing unusual on Facebook and I don't know how to Twitter.
    Can you remember WHY you decided to visit my blog today? Just curious about the strange spike. -- thanks!
    And I am happy you visited!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Marian sorry it took so long to reply.I don't know where blogger was hiding the comments. Thanks for commenting on my blog. I think if the shape of the mountains against the sky on the top left hadn't looked so clumsy, I'd have cropped the painting. Lightening the sky and making it a softer blue solved the problem without cropping and also supplies the info of why the light on the rocks and ground looks like it does.Generally speaking, I think I could have included less information in the painting and possibly made it a bit stronger that way.
      I commented on your blog that day because the title paintings flying off the wall caught my attention. Since mine are strolling off the walls at a leisurely pace, I thought I'd glean a bit of helpful information. Then I saw you are in California the land of bountiful opportunity and appreciation for artists.I love it out there and can't wait for my next California painting trip in 3 weeks!

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