Shady River

 

Shady River

7x7"

acrylic on canvas

sold

I thought I would get to the studio four out of the five weekday afternoons this week and now it is looking more like two! I went Monday and then today. Yesterday I helped with Sammy's skating field trip, tomorrow is a therapeutic massage and Friday Sammy's class has another field trip! At any rate, I thought my pine tree was done when I left the studio on Monday, but looking at it today I felt unsure about the moss on the tree branches. I tweaked them and now I am even less sure! None of the other artists were there so I couldn't get an opinion. I think the problem is that it has all turned out differently than I originally imagined in my head. If I can let go of that I might be able to move on. I decided to step away from the tree, regroup and do a little painting of one of my favorite subjects, Spruce River. Here is what I left with after two hours of pure happiness. I am pleased with it and it was nice not to struggle which is what I have been doing with the pine tree. This one photographed a little dark, but it is close to the real thing. I used a more limited palette compared to my norm and the ground was very dark blue.

As I said, I felt so happy as I worked on this today because I love Spruce River and also since nobody else was there I cranked up my music and took a trip down memory lane with "Talking Heads". I got a "best of" CD awhile ago and I felt so much nostalgia when I listened to "And She Was", "Wild Wild Life", "Burnin' Down The House", "Once In A Lifetime", "Road To Nowhere" and the list goes on. A very enjoyable afternoon.