It seems I had a particular 36 x 60" (91 x 152 cm) in the studio that had continually failed to find a home. It did have some issues but I couldn't be quite sure what had doomed it to this ignominy.
Had I been able to finally put my finger on the problem, I might well have rectified it. But, not being confident about it, I got timid when I thought about re-working it.
So, yesterday, before I got to work on the final preparations for the young fellow's services today, I decided to take the painting by the horns.
With big brushes, and a lot of audacity, I laid in an entire three-foot by five-foot painting. It's very crude, and much must be thought out and corrected. I must decide what's what in the scene and, much more important, what sort of atmosphere I want.
I expect I will try for something rather George Inness-like or, as it is in reality, I will try not to embarrass myself while thinking about George Inness.
Here's where it stands at the moment. The only parts original to the other painting are the dark line of trees on the horizon and a bit of the meadow.
There's something very cathartic about not having the old painting around to reproach me. And it's much easier to charge at something that's already got paint, dancing between obliteration and a new concept.
It took about two hours to get this far. By tomorrow it will be dry enough to work on, and I can begin thinking about unifying it around a central idea.
Sure was great fun to do it at white heat, but I was crazy tuckered out when I stopped.
Paint on!
Donald
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