Heartbreak Cove. 18x24 oil
Above is a work in progress, which could mean that I have a great deal of work left to do on it, or it could mean that despite my best intentions to make it into what I initially envisioned it may languish in this unfinished state until it is eventually painted over to at least salvage the board. I get to this stage on certain paintings and pause, make a list of things I need to go back and work on, and yet even after addressing some of those things either they don't end up how I imagined and need even more work, or other things that I had ignored pop up and demand work, too. Other times, it is the original composition that is at fault, and no matter how much dabbling I do, the thing refuses to behave. For example, in this one I'm not sure about the couple of pinch points where the eye must squeeze its way through in order to get further into the scene. I had thought the eye would begin in the quiet water in the foreground, slip between the rocks and then continue up to the notch between the two small islands. But it may be that the large dark mass of rocks creates a barrier for the eye. It looks a little like a landslide of crude potatoes, and at one point I briefly considered turning them into walruses crowded on the beach, but for now they just remain unresolved.
It seems to happen that inspiration arrives tied up in the bright bow of Hope and Possibility, with a vision in my head that matches the emotion I felt when on the scene. But after a few hours of painting, striding confidently through the lay-in, then wading through the heart-break zone of the painting refusing to cooperate, coming out on the other side where things start to congeal and Hope returns, if only... if only I had the skill, if only the idea were better conceived... It may be a spiritual journey, but the spirits are dampened more often than not. Still, this blog demands posts, and so we hammer on.
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