From my perspective I didn't do very much today. I was having a lot of trouble with my back and hips, and had to take more than the usual number of breaks off the scaffold, to rest my back. However, from the observers' point of view, I covered a lot more canvas with paint today than I have on other days. That's because I was doing some large areas that can be painted quickly with a small number of hue/value/intensity options. Today's painting focused on windows and doors. Today I masked off, and painted flat surfaces of glass. After those dry well, I'll go back and do the details of the dark metal frames and fixtures, and add more details to suggest more reflection.
I also worked on foliage of previously painted trees, added a sycamore behind the Allied Health Building, and painted in an old, gnarled maple tree. I love sycamore trees because the bark on upper trunk and limbs is stark white. In the winter they are very dramatic, and in the spring they are still visible under the light foliage. By this time of the summer, however, their white branches are hidden by heavy foliage. The painting has reached a point where I can look at it and say "yes, this IS a mural." What I see on the wall, minus a few tiny details, actually looks like the proposal I gave the committee. I wasn't entirely certain that I could, in fact deliver what I proposed, never having done anything of this scope and detail before. But I think it is really working.
I've also come to terms with my inability to produce perfection. I used to think that it was a failing that I didn't keep working and worrying over a painting until every detail and drop of paint was perfect. Now I realize that perfection is a chimera. A painting isn't a photograph. Good is good enough.
1 comment:
And then I read this post. A painting isn't a photograph, it's an impression and it's greater than the sum of its paint.
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