First of May at Long Hill (Oil Bar Painting as of May 21, 2013)

First of May at Long Hill (Oil Bar Painting as of May 21, 2013), a photo by randubnick on Flickr.

I got up early today and worked on this painting before breakfast. This landscape is an oil bar painting based on a photo that I took (on May 1st) at Long Hill Gardens, here in Beverly, MA. Today I worked on modifying the composition, modifying shapes and moving things around. I modified the shapes of the bushes in the shadows on the right, and moved them a bit to set up a diagonal with the gate. Then I worked on the trees and bushes on the left side, and made adjustments to set up some diagonal lines on that side, too. I extended the line of the wall, and then worked on modifying the trees to make the shapes more subtle.This is still a work in progress. There is more to do to make this quirky composition work, and I can see things I want to correct. But I am happy about the way this is going.