Painting wild places...

Day 8: Less writing - more painting. I put in 2 solid days of painting before the Memorial Day weekend. Day 8 I added in the sky to the west facing wall, which is a view from Noonmark Mountain.  I also started paying attention to where the wood trim was going to go and what it would cover up, making some composition modifications so interesting elements wouldn't be obscured. Something else I realized was important to consider was busy vs calm sections. The landscape offers many opportunities to dive into details and "busy-ness", but I don't want my mural to be taxing or overwhelming for the eyes. So there needs to be "rest areas", places of calmer colors, less compositional activity so there is a sense of variety as one looks over the entire painting. At least that's my opinion. If the goal is every single detail - a photograph would be better. I'm producing a painting and I can choose to help direct the viewer eyes through compositional elements - which makes it sound like I really know a lot. But the truth is I don't want to put in every single detail. I like the brushmarks to show and the fact that this is a painting, not just a reproduction of what a camera has viewed.

Day 9: See main image for this blog post. I turned around and went back to the Mount Jo view in order to add in tree tops at the bottom (foreground), to help transform the viewer experience to feeling like they are on top of a mountain, looking at this panoramic view. I saved this until late in the mural process because I wanted to do all the major distant landscape painting first. I have been constantly updating colors and value, working with aerial perspective, blending colors, and more, to get the effects that I wanted. Even though there will be 4 separate views shown in the mural, the 4 paintings still need a harmonious relationship with each other. The light is different in each one and so that helps distinguish them. What is at the bottom of each mural panel, the foreground or things that are closest to the viewer, need to help guide the viewer into the painting. This entry foyer is only 7 feet from front door to entry into the home. I need some small elements to anchor the viewer - something their eyes can catch onto as they then look up and get to enjoy the entire panorama.

Besides making a decision on the view for the 4th wall, I'm in that mode now where I look at what I've painted, I know they're almost done, and I find things I need to "fix". Not that they are incorrect, but that I can do them better. The cell phone camera is really helpful in this situation. I take photos and then I can sit down and study them. Without all the distractions that come when viewing the entire wall or room. I'v employed this concept with my plein air painting too. I can stand and look at my painting on the easel and then look up at what I'm painting, but sometimes I go home at the end of the day and it's helpful to just look at a cropped photo of the painting. Sometimes my reaction is, "wow, I did that? It's amazing..."  Other times it might be "What were you thinking? That doesn't work at all!" Now, I don't want people to think I use photos as references to paint my plein air paintings, because I don't. The joy of painting plein air is being outdoors and enjoying the whole experience of the surrounding environment. I just sometimes look at my photos of the painting as a way of self-critiquing.  More on this topic later. Will do some plein air painting this weekend!