Lots and Lots and Lots of Choices

Sunday was the last painting class and I am a little sad about that.  It was good to see Kat and learn from her.  It was good to have homework.  It was a really good group of people.  

One part of our homework was to paint from a photo taken by one of the people in the class.  I tend to stay in my comfort zone and paint relatively simple scenes most of the time.  In comparison, this one had a lot going on.  Also I took the assignment literally and painted directly from the photo.  Cropping or adjusting it did not occur to me.  There was a good overall discussion about this in class, so that was learning moment.

The other learning moment was just about everything with this painting.  It really drove home that all of this is a series of choices.  Some work and some don’t.  I am feeling more comfortable with that at the moment and don’t feel as constricted or stuck. 

I worked on this on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, since I’ve had to work in smaller blocks of time.

In class on Sunday, I started a landscape and did not get very far with it.  In class, it was hard to find my way.  When I got lost in the drawing, I ended up putting some of the pieces in the foreground to help place things.  It felt good to work this through to completion when I finished it up tonight.  Once again, I was more aware of all of the choices and that some worked and some did not.  

I like the reference photo and am sure that I will revisit it at some point after I’ve tried some other landscapes.