the days of painting to rid myself of unwanted stressed are long gone and i've returned to yesteryear when i painted for fun. so it seems rich wants us to paint a still life that i think is neato cheeto, but has a lot of details and textures and contours and other little quirks. while manda has chosen her version of the still life, i over confidently decide to paint what i see. BIG MISTAKE. so it seems it's been a while since i painted in a manner that is controlled and actually resembles something else.
i was the first of the two of us to bravely slap yellow ochre on my canvas to get some intial shapes. ah...the joys of starting a painting with fresh ideas and spirits high. well as the days pass, i realize i have bitten off more than i can chew. i had a hat, guitar, rustic vase with penny plants, a mat for a picture and fruit in my still life. i was determined to paint them! however, as reality would have it, they were determined not to be painted. i fussed and cussed at my cavas through days two and three of our painting studio. my vase was the first to go and the background fabric changed for the first of several times. the next focus shifted to the hat, which i really liked after spending some much needed time on it. the guitar wouldn't cooperate after painting it three times, so out it went to be supplanted with a birdhouse. since i couldn't have the birdhouse sitting on the paint can that was reality, i placed it on a book with shadows that worked. then i changed the background fabric for the second time. AAAARRRGGGHHH!
ok, so rich says that my over analytical side is strong and that i need to keep trying. he adds that for one to be happy with a painting, one has to be happy with the composition. HEY, that's it! come to find out, i never liked the original composition of the still life. once i added the birdhouse in reality to the scene and removed the guitar and vase, i was happy. this is what i subconciously wanted to see. this and the wine bottle i was to add in later. the fabric changed again...
day four brought me fist-to-cuffs with my painting! i was ready to be done with it, no more i said. i'm D-U-N, done! after removing fabric three and ranting to manda about my dang painting, she eloquently suggests, "why don't you try meditating on what you've got so far." after i laughed out loud, i reluctantly agreed. staring at the center and trying to empty my mind of distractions, the truth was breaking through the acrylic. i just needed to stand my ground and reconcile with my painting with a, "you can do it man!" slogan over my shoulder. therefore, i covered over the entire area of fabric with white paint and started over on it for the fourth or fifth time, it really doesn't matter.
reconciliation brought much joy and satisfaction as i painted what i saw on the fabric. i was able to get the folds correct and my shadows to work. the final addition would be the green glass wine bottle with horses on the label. it was placed where the vase and mat were originally. finally, the piece was complete and i was plenty happy.
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