Still Life Exercise and Rebellion

Still Life Watercolor Exercise Rebellion
Originally uploaded by randubnick.

This is a color exercise from a watercolor class. The class members worked from a still life set-up that was created from objects brought in by class members, with the idea that everything people brought would be included. So depending on the luck of where your easel was, the composition was largely predetermined. I didn't mind as I began to paint, because, well, it was just an exercise, but later I did mind. I was happy with the clarity and strength of the colors, but frustrated with the composition. (And with myself, for not speaking up, for doing the assignment instead of making art.) A few weeks ago, I photographed the work and loaded the image into the computer. I tried cropping the digital image left, right, and center to fix the composition. Nothing worked. So today I staged a little rebellion. I pulled the image into Painter IX and quietly eliminated a votive candle (I am not kidding) that had no business being in my painting and was causing trouble near the corner. I tried to do more (move the pink wineglass, for example) but I couldn't pull it off. But in any case the composition is a little better, but more important, the experience was very satisfying even though the original watercolor is unchanged. I am posting this little rebellion tonight for anyone out there who has ever been frustrated by working on a predetermined still life set-up.