Monday 27 August 2007

Working with progress

The landscapes from earlier this summer have been sitting in my living room and I've been going back to them frequently to work them up initially as oils and pastels. The plan is that once I've done a few more realist, scenic compositions I can then go and abstract from various parts of the actual paintings, rather than using the initial sketches and photo references.
The progress on getting to those abstractions, however, has been a bit slow. Nonetheless, one of the larger pastels is getting to the point that it is almost finished. I've been reworking it a quite a few times and now feel that it's almost done. Funnily, the very reason for starting this scene - a series of strong, almost unreal, shorelines along this loch shore - has been what's been problematic.
Just for fun, I thought I'd post a before and after picture to offer as sense of working through a painting and exploring the success of a particular composition.

Shoreline repetitions, Pastel on board, 70x50cm

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Now, dear reader, can you spot the 10 changes between the two paintings? Happy searching!

2 comments:

Lindsay said...

You are right! I do love these colors.

Gesa said...

Hi Lindsay - yes... me too! And it opens up the curious questions of landscape colours for different parts of the world, doesn't it?