Reflections (Oil Bar Painting as of August 24, 2013)

Reflections (Oil Bar Painting as of August 24, 2013), a photo by randubnick on Flickr.

This is my oil bar painting in progress as it looked on August 24, 2013. It is based on a photo that I took at Bradley Palmer State Park, in Topsfield, MA. (posted here June 14). If you compare this to the previous version, you will see that the tree on the right is gone. I thought the painting was finished on August 21, so I started sealing the edges of the canvas. But I kept thinking about changing the composition, eliminating the little tree on the left. I really liked that little tree, but I thought the composition would be better without it. I felt that the composition needed a quiet, peaceful area where the eye could rest. But before making the change, I decided to try it out digitally to see if I liked it. So on August 23, I used Painter to modify a photo of the painting and cover up the tree. I compared versions with and without the tree on the right, and then made my decision to make the change. The morning of the 24th, I got up early and decided to try to paint over some branches to see if it could be done. It seemed to be possible, so I kept going, repainting the sky and the background. I had become quite fond of that little tree, and sorry to see it go. But if you look closely, you will see traces of its branches in the water, in the clouds, and in the distant hills. At this point, the painting was really almost finished, just a little bit more to go . . . .