It is done, and moving to the next

I have had a difficult few months with the loss of my mother, and working on her portrait with her sister. I spent months “perfecting” the skin tone and working through how to represent their hair etc. I learned quite a bit about painting portraits, number one being don’t try to make a black and white picture into a color portrait. It was also an emotionally loaded process which may or may not have slowed me down, I’m not sure. I am happy with the result.

I have started a new painting with much less of an emotional load attached. It feels freeing and I am looking forward to what I will learn from this adventure. I have been talking with my instructor about doing a more impressionistic interpretation. I have loved impressionism for quite some time. My instructor had some books about more contemporary impressionists in the US, which were great, and I fell in love with the technique once again. What I find the most challenging is how to decide what gets more detail and what doesn’t and how to play with the light that will make the most sense or at least how to play with the light that will make the best composition. The image I am working from is a garden in a conservatory, actually from Biltmore (I hope that is ok to say). I was struck by the colors and the lush greenery. Here is the first layer of paint. Still a lot of work to be done, but I wanted to share the first pass so you can watch the progress (I hope) and watch to see if I can develop into a more impressionistic painter. I have lots of other images I would like to capture, and hope to get even more.