Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Wrapping Up Loose Ends

This 16 x20 acrylic on canvas has been sitting in my studio for about 8 months..half finished. It's not like me not to finish something once started BUT I am learning some patience these days. AND I am learning that given a bit of distance you can see all kinds of possibilities in a painting that you did not see before.

I started this in Diane Barringer's acrylic class in Jan Sturm's garage studio (here in Fl screened in garages are quite posh) way last winter. She laid out the apples and the cup and the pot (which was actually a flour sifter). I can remember if was draped at the time or not. About everything in the picture has changed color at least once!
Finally when the striped table cloth came to my mind, I began to actually "like" the painting. A little.

Then last week someone sent me an on-line video of Susan Webb Tregay doing some "repair" on a watercolor and I emailed a Lou about it and she rushed over with Susan's book called Master Disaster: Five Ways to Rescue Desperate Watercolors. Don't you wonder how this affected an acrylic painting? (Incidentally, I found her book for about $3 on used book section of Barnes & Noble.) Anyway, the thing I loved about her book was her outside-the-box thinking...something I've been striving for lately. And I suddenly saw the printing behind my still life. It came to me a dream! I kid you not. I do my best painting in dreams.

Okay, here's my last decision. Should I add one more thing into the kitchen utensil pot? My idea was a wire wisk partially covering the word "kitchen" but leaving it legible. I like things grouped in odd numbers and the two in the pot bother me a little. I had originally thought to stencil on one more word on the backgorund. But now I think that may just be too busy.

3 comments:

  1. I would add the whisk but no more words! Sometimes it's good to put things away a while and come back to them with "fresh eyes"!

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  2. so far the vote is one for the whisk and one against. Most people say no more words. Got that just right. As Deb says...keep looking for the fresh look at it.

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  3. Odd numbers of things are usually more interesting than even numbers of things. Might be best to add the whisk. Maybe placed to interfere a little with the "K" but not more of the letters. Mary

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