Painting #18 - Playing with Design

Pirate's Bay, 9X12", oil

I have fallen behind in both paintings and posts due to caregiving  my mom as we navigate the palliative stages of her Alzheimers .  Her deterioration this summer has been more rapid than any of us anticipated, and she is, of course, my first priority right now.  My brother has her today, giving me some time to do a little catching up, so here I am!

I have around fifty of the 91 paintings done and still hope to complete them before the weather turns - I will certainly give it my best shot.

I have to say I am quite astounded at all of the things I am learning as I progress through this project.  Probably the most noticeable thing is that I getting much faster at establishing a workable design.  Because this is the first decision, and the most important decision as the painting is started, I am happy to see some improvement.

I am learning to move some of the elements in the visual field to create a solid design plan as the perfect composition doesn't too often present itself in nature.  Or, if it does, it is not a workable place to set up one's easel due to strong wind, too much sun, tide changes etc.  It is often necessary to move into a shady spot in order to have a successful plein air session. 

In this painting I used a strong linear lead in with the logs and the seaweed at the tide line.  That part of the process was sort of a "gimmee", and by that I mean it was obvious that those elements would be useful in  creating an interesting composition.  There was also a great sense of aerial perspective to work with in the background.  I altered a few shapes to make it more interesting - and I think it worked.

As in life, we must arrange the pieces before us.

Happy painting, everyone!