Getting started - again

Been away from studio painting for almost a month - closing down Ontario and driving back to BC.  Having trouble feeling excited about painting - and thats not normal for me.  Went for a Thanksgiving Day hike in Strathcona park. Thats all it took to get me pumped again: the colours were wonderful.

I decided to do multiple interpretations of the view of Mt Washington from the Meadows hike. Something I painted years ago when I was tighter and less interpretive. How would I interpret it now?

So I made three "first layer starts", one each morning, and each using a different approach. All were done quickly and crudely - just spots of colour. Stopped each once the canvas was covered, then framed, and set aside to examine in a few days to finish. I wanted loose, colourful, bold interpretations - almost a plein air look.

Start with pencil sketch then final plan with acrylic marker - 18x24

Under painting with quin red and crude value plan using colour shaper

Add caption

Add vertical darks

Add background values

Its crude but canvas is covered.

Framed and set aside for a few days before deciding on second layer and details

Second day, decided on a vertical interpretation. Again total time about 90 minutes.

Acrylic marker plan 16x20

Poor photo - but you get the idea - image covered  

So now, framed, set aside, look at them casually and then more critically. Can see many things to do. For example, on the first piece, the yellow meadow is too saturated and the yellow line takes the viewer out of the canvas to the left. Is the foreground coming forward: is the background pushed visually back? Are the colours too saturated? Needs to be changed.

Tomorrow, the third day.