Problem solving

If you want the best seat in the house … 

you’ll have to move the dog.

-- ANONYMOUS

Great Pyrees painting WORK-IN-PROGRESS

16 x 16 inches • oil on 1-1/2" deep cradled GessobordTM

So CLOSE to being finished with this one … 

just need a tad more detail on the throw and the fringe.

When I got to the point below, I took a breather for a day to work on a couple of other things, then came back to it this morning with a fresh eye. Before diving in, I took a few minutes to study the colors and composition, and made some decisions that I thought would strengthen the whole thing.

First of all, I didn’t love the door, so that’s where I started. When I got it to the point where I just started loving it, I stopped. Much more fun for the viewer if you leave some work just unfinished enough for their brains to finish it. Like the keyhole for example. Just the suggestion of a keyhole is enough.

Next I made the walls darker to balance the dark floor and the dark blanket showing from underneath the quilt at the very bottom edge of the painting. (That made me really love that white door!) I also added a few dark turquoise-y blue touches to that green blanket to better match it with the rich turquoise of the wall. 

While I was changing the wall color, I decided to lose the black lamp base to the left of the framed painting behind the sofa. This move was a good example of how, most of the time, simpler is stronger, because now that dark upper left corner is a better balance with the dark floor at the lower right corner.

Finally, I cooled down the color scheme of the landscape painting behind the sofa, to fit in better with the overall cool tone of the painting. 

I put another copy of the changed painting below so you can compare the two.

Happy painting!