Friday, June 1, 2018

Incremental Improvement (or, the long way around the barn)






You may have seen this painting before. The barn/antique shop belongs to someone I know, and I happened to see a photo on her Facebook page. I thought it would make a good painting subject, but when I was done, I wasn't too thrilled with it. While on a small framing binge, I was deciding whether or not it was worth framing.

I taped it to a board and started making a few changes. As usual with my paintings, I felt it needed some more darks, and other tones to break up the large white facade. I still wasn't happy. 

Then I took some artistic license and added yellow to the sign. Eye-catching, but somewhat distracting. 

A spot of yellow?

I painted the doors yellow to balance it out, as well as picking out a few more details. 

More yellow!

Small changes, but these gave the painting more life. Once framed I saw some more areas I could play with, but not now.

Safe in a frame - no more tinkering.

The lesson here is that none of my paintings are ever really finished.

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