Taking It When It Happens

I come home after dark from fishing, clean my catch and then it hits me: 
 
The painting that I’ve been chipping away at doesn’t need the whites re-worked; the darks need to be pushed!  It’s already 10:30 pm, but it was clear what to do and how to do it.  Into the night I pressed.

It was nothing heated, nothing spontaneous (except the vision while cleaning fish), and nothing passionate (except seizing the moment); just working the darks.  This brought definition to the image and broadened the tonal range.

Then I re-worked the whites.

I was in bed by 1:30 am and pleased.  Feeling like an artist again—not because of the hour (well, maybe...), not because of the results (possibly...) but because of seeing what to do and doing it.  I love having a studio at home because you don’t know when art is going to strike.

This morning I studiously avoided looking at last night’s work as I turned on the lights and straightened up.  Then…

 

YES!  It isn’t done, but it’s so much cleaner.  The next few steps are set, again clarifying the whites (bottom left corner)—who knows from there?



A Little Background

This painting is on top of a canvas from 1980--you can see some of the original painting in the right breast area (an eye).  In 1998 I took primer over the background to block out the figure, and rendered the dress in furnace cement. 

15 years later I added the border--while repainting the white last night, I noticed how good the blue painters tape looked with the warm palette.  I imagine using blue oil pastels to draw that line around the border.

<