Reflections (Oil Bar Painting as of August 20, 2013)

Reflections (Oil Bar Painting as of August 20, 2013), a photo by randubnick on Flickr.

Here is my oil bar painting in progress as it looked last Tuesday, August 20. I have been painting a scene from Bradley Palmer State Park (Topsfield, MA), based on a photo that I took there. (The reference photo is posted here on June 14.) I would have said that this painting was finished on the 18th or 19th of August. But there were some changes I wanted to make and I decided to take a risk and make them. I have been spending a lot of time looking at trees (eating outside on the deck, etc.) and one evening realized how much brown I was seeing in the trees. Now when this painting was in its early stages, I decided that the dark blue for shadows was too strong and decided to try brown instead. But I didn't like it, missed the blue, and reversed it. This time I decided to just add touches of brown to the darkest shadows and very light brown to the tree trunks, but leaving most of the dark blue alone. But before I touched the canvas, I tried it out digitally, adding brown to a jpg of the painting, and then comparing the two versions. I decided to make the change, so on the 20th I mixed up a brown that had a lot of purple tones and added it to some of the shadows. Then I mixed it with white and got a light brown that is close to mauve, and added it to the tree trunks. It's a pretty subtle difference, but I think adding the brown makes the eye and brain see the color as a bit more realistic. But there was still enough blue to make me happy. As I worked, I made a few small changes in the trees and branches. Almost finished, but there were a few more changes to come. . . .