Creating a Roadside Masterpiece
Author: Larry Seiler, Contributing Editor
Well...I add more texture to foreground trees, strengthen contrasts that will help shoreline brush stand out, and use the knife again to make more shrub and sapplings. Satisfied....and realizing the sun has moved so much, that I would risk compromising my painting to continue, and stop to pose with my work before cleaning up.
My faith was restored. Each time an artist sets up before a scene, there is this sense of apprehension that the overwhelming information nature is about to throw at you, has the potential to defeat your purposes. Decisions will have to be made to maintain the "ah-Hah!"....or, that which initially grabbed you by the jugular and said, "Paint me!" What not to paint will be nearly as important to pay attention to as what to paint. Creativity and art making require a certain amount of risk, and always the artist has this sense of needing to stretch a bit beyond his/her capabilities. Nothing can substitute doing it. Success builds upon failures, and you can't let the potential of failing hold you back. Get out there. Your best painting is yet waiting to happen!
Though I will have some finishing to do in the studio, let's look at the work one last time as we end this plein air session.