Painting Keys 2: Assessment

Working through a painting

 I had this attitude that it was going to take time for my work to grow. 

I had to develop skills to do what I wanted and I didn't really expect it was going to happen rapidly. 

(Janet Fish) 

 

  I had worked along with this painting for a while when I stopped and left it in this state-unfinished, and with many questionable areas. This is the ugly duckling state that most paintings go through, at least for me. It's the most difficult part of the process, and has neither the excitement of the endless possibilities of the beginning, nor the satisfaction of completion. 

  At an artist talk Laylah Ali gave a couple of years ago, her meticulous process was described, and I was interested to learn that she ends a painting session with an assessment period.  She will list all the issues with the painting in pretty great detail, with options for changes. Then she starts the next session with that list. Using a modified application of this idea, I jotted down a short list of things I was not happy with on this painting after I was done. This was good as I did not get back to this painting for a bit.

  One change on the list was to mass the color of the leaves in the foreground maple. It's just too choppy. There was more neutral color needed in the background, and more shape variety in the foreground.  These changes and others I saw as I went along are visible in the photo below.

  It doesn't feel quite done to me here. That tree outside my window is now a bare limbed statue in a dry rustling carpet of fallen leaves. Any more changes are going to have to come from memory and intuition. It may need to be left for a bit to be assessed again with fresher eyes. Sometimes going from ugly duckling to swan is a long jump!