Loom

#27- Loom

6 x 6"

oil on board

© Nicki Ault, 2012

(30 paintings in 30 days- Project II)

Having this much fun painting should perhaps be illegal, but I am very glad it is not!!! 

This painting began in a very different way and about 20 minutes in took on a whole new direction. I don't know why that happens. I mean, in reality, most often the painting in my head is usually not what ends up on the canvas, but it is usually in the near vicinity. But every now and then the painting takes over and I guess you just go with it. This painting began with significant bushes and a shadowy field in the foreground, then the clouds started to emerge and it became about them. I was looking at one of my photos, but couldn't resolve the enormity of the sky with the original activity of the land, so I had to simplify. I am on a small quest to figure out how to make clouds look illuminated by light and this painting became about that. As I worked I was thinking about how storms at Waskesiu often look like they are swallowing up the distant shore, so besides the illumination of the clouds, I also wanted to try to create that effect.

Good clean fun!