Just got home from a week in Sedona, AZ. It was a great week of gallery hopping and I even got to see a plein air Paint Out with lots of accomplished artists. For those who might not know, "plein air" means to paint outside, trying to capture the feeling of the scene. It has to be done quickly, too, since the light changes so rapidly. Since I was out of the studio for more than a week, I didn't get any painting done, but that gives me a chance to show you a painting I recently "fixed". This painting was done a couple of years ago. I wasn't ever happy with the background and it got shoved to the back of the studio somewhere. A few months ago, I was going through old paintings, throwing out the truly hopeless ones, when I ran across this one. It's on a nice canvas - deep frame with a gallery wrap - so I really didn't want to toss it. My style has changed a lot, too, and I was pretty sure I could make it a much better painting without too much work. First, I worked on the dog, softening the values and edges. I did another layer or two over the entire dog. Finishing that, I was still left with a background that made me cringe. It was green and what I had been trying to do was create the feeling of a woods or garden behind him. Didn't work. Not at all. I left it on my easel for several days, contemplating just how to get the background I needed. One that would make him pop off the canvas. Finally, I just let my intuition take over and I mixed a really dark green, using phthalo blue and cad yellow with a little bit of cad red medium. And that truly "fixed" the painting.
This is 11" x 14", oil on canvas. It was recently on display at Blackbird Frame & Art in Asheville, North Carolina during their show to benefit Brother Wolf. It didn't sell during the show, but I'll be delighted to contribute 20% of the sale to Brother Wolf (an animal rescue working towards a no-kill community) if you'd like to purchase it directly from me. $500 and it is yours!
thanks for stopping by,
susan
http://susangarriques.com
email - susan@susangarriques.com
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