Last week I pulled this canvas that I started last summer out of the closet and decided I felt up to finishing it.
I could never get the foreground right and eventually I grew frustrated and put it away for a later day. This is the biggest canvas size I've used at 18x24", but that wasn't the problem. The problem, besides inexperience, was that I was trying to paint thickly with my painting knife. I definitely underestimated how hard it is! Sure it is easy enough smearing delicious mixtures of paint around but the hard part is keeping it from turning to mud and making it actually look 'finished'. I did a bit of work on the background to ease me back into the subject before I tackled the fence post, leaves and flowers. The posts worked out well enough, probably because I used a brush and kept things thin. The rest however, went through many stages, including some scraping and starting over. My struggle was to get the leaves to stand out from the grass behind them. I went to my wife/critic for help and she helped me realize I needed a lot more contrast. So I scraped the grassy area and repainted it with thin, light paint. Then I kept the leaves very thick but darkened them. The result is a VERY textured and expressive surface which is different from my usual style and which I quite like. I think this could be a piece that I modify off and on for the rest of my life unless I formally declare it finished and sign it. So that's exactly what I did. After a year in the making it feels great to have this piece finished!
(The colors are brighter than they appear here, I had a hard time getting a good picture)
Untitled
18x24"
Oil on Canvas with Painting Knife
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