Marpril experiments

 The months are still blending together sadly, though good news is: I have had both my Covid vaccination shots! Feels good to be doing something positive toward hopefully eradicating or at least putting a dent in the pandemic that has gripped us for too long.

Meantime - painting is source of solace, of comradeship, challenge and relief.

Last months of painting have a mishmash of projects and side trips as well as the usual Monday plein air and Friday flower painting.

Experimenting with composition: This seemed to busy with a big 'X' at the bottom that might keep you from looking further up in the painting. So I had a friend mess with it on Procreate and I made the following changes below. I think it could work either way, but worth working it over to see.

first version

Devereux Slough, 12"x16" oil on panel

second version

This one had a tree right in the middle that didn't seem to belong there (even though it was there!) It just cut the space and wasn't here nor there.

first version

Carpinteria Bluffs, 6"x12" oil on panel

second version

Much better, I think. Less spatial confusion

Experimenting with value - I painted this using a black and white photo of the color image, trying to match the values as closely as I could. I was also trying to simplify the values to basically 3 and almost got there. Interesting and challenging problem.

color study

Gate at Burton Mesa, 10"x20" oil on panel

translated into black and white values.