Have you ever wondered about the evolution of a painting? Sometimes it takes months and lots of layers to complete a painting. Here's an example of the evolution of one of my more layered paintings.
This one started as a gentle seascape. I had it in my studio but it never felt finished and nothing about it really excited me. So one day I decided to flip it upside down and paint over it.
The sea became the sky and the sky became a landscape.
I absolutely adore this stage and sometimes I get really stuck here! The drip marks and the bold brushwork make me so happy. But I kept going and it became a field of flowers.
This is called the ugly middle stage. It sat in this awkward stage for months. Then I picked it up and kept working on it.
I started using a palette knife as well as a giant paint brush to keep making different types of marks. I kept some of the drips marks and re-worked the sky to find some color harmony.
Here I worked on adding more more lights in the greens and pinks and tried not to get too tight with the flowers. I was afraid to cover the brushwork on the lower right but it didn't look finished or balanced. This is the stage where I had a consultation with my daughter who asked me some good questions and helped me decide where to go next. It's helpful to have a super artistic daughter!
In the last stages I added more darks and one more large flower in the foreground. I also added some highlights to the flowers and some extra yellow/green to let the light in. I left drip marks and palette knife scratchiness to keep the texture interesting. And there it is! What an evolution from that quiet seascape!!
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