The Road Home / 8x16 / Oil on Linen PanelI spent the morning working on a still life of narcissus in a glass vase with chiaroscuro lighting. Although I love narcissus, I should know by now not to paint them. I become obsessed with all the ins and outs of the petals, and before you know it the painting is tighter than a rubber band on a pony tail. Accuracy is good, but more and more I'm finding that it's much better to be interesting--perhaps even mysterious--than accurate.
To compensate for all that intensity, I decided to have some fun and play with an old unfinished painting. The first version of "The Road Home" was a light and shadow landscape with okay shapes but not enough light and shadow to make it work. I put away all my reference material and focused only on shapes, values, composition and color. My goal was to create an emotional response instead of a photocopy. I'm really happy with this tonal version. More importantly, I had fun doing it!
