As I mentioned in the previous post, earlier this month I went to a painting workshop given by Carol Marine. Aside from the awesome opportunity to learn from someone whose work I love, the main thing I wanted from the workshop was to start painting more loosely and boldly. This means changing how I see which involves a lot of squinting, filtering out of unnecessary details and trying to see bigger more abstract shapes.
Doing this means letting go. I mean this in a good way when I say one of the most important things I’ve learned at the workshop is to wipe the canvas when what’s on there isn’t working. I lost count of how many times I wiped this panel down.
Another important lesson I learned is that if I’m having to wipe the canvas down repeatedly then it’s time to do some smaller studies of the subject I’m trying to paint.
Carol noticed I was struggling and she painted the flower in the bottom right to show me how to break down what I’m seeing into value shapes. Then I started again. I almost wiped the top left, but since it was just a study I left it, which was just as liberating as wiping it was previously. And now I can see the progress I made from that to the other two I painted in the upper right and bottom left.
Lovely shadows on the painting upper right corner. One benefit of oils, it can be wiped off if unhappy with results. I’ve done it too many times.
Wonderful series!