Spring Day On Janzen Road

Spring Day on Janzen Road

10x10 

acrylic on canvas
sold

Well, this is the other piece I did while out in the country last weekend. It was a clear spring day with these soft, wispy clouds scattered through the sky. (Hey Deb, if you are reading this... I was thinking of you while I painted this and the story about the art teacher who told you there was no such thing as wispy clouds!) A fox ran through the field as I was setting up and there must have been a pond somewhere behind me on the other side of the road because the geese or ducks were making all kinds of noise. I sat in the shade of the truck, no music (giggle), and pushed paint around for about 90 minutes. Things didn't gel as well as they did the first day I went out, but it was still such a peaceful and relaxing afternoon so I am certainly not complaining. 

I brought this painting home with the field section incomplete and, quite frankly, looking very wishy-washy. It was pale yellow and uninteresting with a few golden stripey marks suggesting grass. Lame. I stared at it in the studio and got some input from another artist. She really liked the brush strokes in the other prairie painting and wondered if I could make something like that work in this one. At the same time, though, I needed the brush strokes to make sense with what I had happening in the sky. We pulled out a couple of books on Van Gogh to see how he handle his fields and yowzie, was that a humbling lesson! He was one wild and crazy guy! He really just went for it, didn't he? That thick, rich oil paint; the movement and expression in each and every mark he made; the mastery of colour. We "ooohed" and "aaahed" with the turning of every page. Then I glanced over at my "effort" and had to chuckle. However, looking at his work gave me that small push I needed to take a chance and try something with my piece that I never would have thought of... I ended up putting some lavenders and soft blues in the field as a compliment to all of the shades of yellows. They are subtle, but they are there (and more noticeable in person). And I added more movement to the field as well as incorporated a version of that texture found in "Out on Valley Road". I then needed to beef up the wispy clouds after the field became a bit more committed to the cause! I should have taken a before picture and I might have if I knew just how much it was going to change.

Anyhoo, it was an exercise and I learned some stuff, plus I had a great painting afternoon with no embarrassing mishaps! Doesn't get much better.