Love The Large Format!

River Trees 30x40" One can't tell from a cropped photo how large this painting is. I ought to not crop it one of these days, so you can get an idea of how much it resembles a window's view of the river outside (I wish!). It sits in my dining room, when I'm not working on it, giving me the impression that there's a lovely flowing river and, now that I have it at a point where it doesn't bug me, I find it very relaxing and soothing to look at. It would be a nice thing to gaze at in a doctor's office or auto repair shop...two places that cause anxiety. I'd been missing the layer upon layer of painter's knife painting that made up the entire "Storm Wave" painting. It was so freeing to go in with bright colors and then hit it with duller glazes of blues and greens, come back with more brights and lights and then bring it closer to reality. The layers look so good with a top coat of varnish because you can see the under layers peeking through. Lots of depth. So, the trees got a little of that action the past couple of days and then late yesterday I went after the rock walk on the right. I saw blue undertones in the rock, so actually did a pure color glazing of Cerulean on different spots and went off to do something else while it dried a bit. When I got back, there was still enough tackiness to it that I could work it in with a lighter pinkish lavender mix and so it developed some grays in spots. But, right before I gave up for the night, I didn't like what I had and decided to chance mixing right on the canvas with some Titanium white knifed into the tacky paint. It worked a treat! I only mention my success with this as a lesson on how not to listen to your teachers, haha! Mixing pure pigment on the canvas is usually a big No No, so I was mentally slapping my hands even as I was finding it working so well. Another life lesson, brought to you by the Bonga. Feel free to use it, but don't tell anyone I told you.