Today we went out a future townhouse site near downtown Langley, where we could see uphill pasture behind the property. Well, this almost ended up a disaster today. I originally thought I could put more into this 10x13 canvas but when Jim asked me "what is the main attraction on the canvas? Give that part enough space to appeal." I didn't know about my composition. And I couldn't quite decide what to do. As the result my initial block-out painting didn't have any focus nor structure. Then worse, all canvas was covered by muddy colors and nothing stood out. At that time I'm almost gave up but Jim suggested I re-draw based on what I have on canvas and led my focus onto the blocks of patterns. Then I started putting more rich colors to salvage this piece. At least it pulled together again and created distinctionable painting. Although of course I still don't like the outcome I got, mediocre is better than disaster. I also realized I needed to use softer brushes for plein air. Hog brushes scrape everything underneath instead of leaving a new layer on top. I'll keep this on a wall to remind me what I need to try and learn.
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