Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Composition challenges

Strange Day
7 x 10 soft pastels on Art Spectrum Colourfix
Miki Willa
Wow! This is my 100th post! I was reading another blog today where the artist explained that she was not blogging as much because it took time away from her family and her art. At this point in my journey, my blog is a big extension of my art. I have a place to look at my daily paintings with a much more objective eye. At this stage, that is very important to me.
The reference photo for this painting was taken on Oahu's north shore. These trees are quite common along the shorelines here. I am sorry I don't know what they are. I was initially intrigued by the negative spaces created by the branches. I thought the focal area would center around the area where the trunks all come together. As I painted, I realized something else was happening.
Thinking about all the "rules" of composition, I was trying to get my lightest whites and darkest darks together. What happened was the lightest whites became much more interesting.
I started working on the small shore break by adding the shadows and highlights. I worked the wet sand next. All of a sudden, I realized the center of interest had
changed to the white water to the left of the trunks. That was fine with me. I worked until I had to open the library, and then some. I finally took some photos. I decided to photograph the detail of the focal area. After I saw the results, I realized that my eye is not as developed as I thought it was. I think this detail is much more interesting than the bigger painting. I am concerned that the water does not lay down but appears to crawl up the picture plain, but I think that if I only painted this area, that would be painted differently.
All this goes to show is that I still have a long way to go. Some day, I will have more paintings that hit the mark and will be able to start marketing them. I am fortunate that some of my better paintings have found good homes. I just have to keep on the journey, keep learning, and apply my faith. It will happen.

1 comment:

Willa said...

thanks again for sharing your journey and starting my day with a wow!!