Winter Drive at Sunset (Oil Bar Painting as of June 13, 2013)

Winter Drive at Sunset (Oil Bar Painting as of June 13, 2013), a photo by randubnick on Flickr.

This is my oil bar painting in progress as of yesterday (I am still one day behind in my posts.) This view of a winter sunset is loosely based on one of my photographs. (The reference photo is posted here June 10 2013.) After painting for an hour this morning, I was still very frustrated with the hillside and trees. I couldn't get the shapes right and after painting for an hour, felt like things weren't getting better, and might become worse if I wasn't careful. It was time to stop anyway, so I turned the canvas sideways to finish sealing the edges (still hoping to get this done in time for Open Studios this weekend.). But as a went about my day, I kept thinking about my painting. By late afternoon, I was so grouchy that I decided to do something about it. I looked at the painting (still sideways), and decided to try a trick that I learned from one of my painting teachers. Instead of turning the painting right side up, I turned the reference photo sideways too, and painted in the shapes I saw, with the canvas still on its side. It worked! I was painting what I saw, not what I thought should be there. Then I finally turned the painting right side round and corrected a few shadows, and this is how it looked at that point. I felt like the painting was back on track, and so was my day.