There’s something about fruit next to shiny objects that makes me feel alive. I painted this after spending a good while setting the composition up JUST right, leaving to teach a fitness class, and finally coming home to everything set up and ready for me to paint.
Having a whole afternoon ahead of me, I took my time on this painting. There was no rush to meet a deadline and I found myself lost in the work, stunned to look up upon finishing to see that in all, this painting took me an estimated five hours to set up, paint, and tear down. It’s one of the few oil paintings that I’ve ever made bigger than 6x6in and It’s good to see the effort I’m putting in returning works like this one!
This painting is successful in big part because it has clean edges, a pleasing composition, and the values are spot on. There are nice, trustworthy shapes chiseled out in the paint with a seemingly effortless attitude to the blocky brush strokes. It’s got a fine layer of paint on it, laid down with lots of linseed oil, as opposed to a thick coat which makes the background feel creamy and smooth. Yum! Strawberries and cream.
Sometimes it seems these successful paintings happen without my say so… This insight arises when I believe my say so will lend comparable results and instead I end up with a painting that looks grotesque, unappetizing, and invokes a deep feeling of disgust. Today I made that painting. I am posting this one instead, from a few days ago, as I remind myself that success lies in completing a work, learning from it, and continuing with my practice. Good job Morgie! You painted today! And bonus points to you for sitting with the fear of your failure.
A note on the grotesque painting………. I stopped writing this post after getting those thoughts out and putting a closer look into my self-proclaimed abomination. I saw the possibility of redemption and spent the rest of the afternoon performing careful surgery to revive this work. I’m pleased now with the result.
A further note: I went to edit the photos of the aforementioned grotesque painting, the first version that I hated and the new and improved version, and was shocked to see my hatred for the first had lessened and that the extra hours of work achieved minimal results. I’m intrigued by this whole short story. I birthed a painting that I hated, sunk into despair, revived myself by pressing forward to redeem the work, and finally found that I don’t really hate the original after all! I currently have the revised painting hanging above my sink as it dries. It inspired another painting with its shiny glass reflections. I’m thankful for the struggle that is a good sign of being on the path to artistic meaning.