Sunday, June 17, 2012

More progress on irises painting ...


Painting should never look as if it were done with difficulty, 
however difficult it may actually have been.

–  ROBERT HENRI, in his book The Art Spirit

I myself do nothing. 
The Holy Spirit accomplishes all through me.
 
–  WILLIAM BLAKE

  
Wild White Irises • 12 x 12 inches • WORK-IN-PROGRESS

Here’s just a part of the painting as it is so far. LOTS of layers of transparent color for the underpainting, to get that deep, rich color of the shadow at the foot of the oak tree where these white irises are growing ... I’ve been taking lots of progress photos to show, when I get this one finished. 

Thought I’d share a bit of my mental process so far:

1. At the beginning, I’m not sure where I’m going with all these colors, and how I’m going to accomplish the delicate yet hardy feel I was after for these irises. 

2. I start thinking: it’s no use. It’s never going to look the way I’m picturing in my imagination.

3. My computer crashes. Great. I won’t have access to my reference photo (which I took back in the spring) for a while. I decide to continue the painting from memory.

4. It’s not working. I start to really dislike this painting. It’s awful.

5. I take a break from this one to paint a picture of Roadie looking out the window.

6. I come back to this one with fresh eyes and a fresh attitude, letting go of what I started out thinking it should be. Just painting spontaneously. Little surprises that I really like start happening with the colors. 

7. I start really enjoying working on this painting. And I’m looking forward to finishing it tomorrow.


4 comments:

Elizabeth McCrindle said...

Why do we put ourselves through this....smile! I've said enough over the last few months but something always teases me back.

Beautiful rich colours in this one going to be a humdinger....

Anonymous said...

Karen thank you so much!! If we lived closer I believe we could be friends. You are so honest and giving of your knowledge and time and for that gift I thank you! I learn so much from your posts.

Karen M Schmidt said...

Must be some kind of character flaw, Elizabeth, the way we keep trying to accomplish the impossible task of capturing the beauty that surrounds us in a painting! :)

Thanks, Sherry! Sometimes I think I'm rambling, but glad to hear that you get value out of it! Oh, and by the way, we would SO be friends! (I think we kind of already are ...)

Anonymous said...

That's so true Karen!