Mt. Doug Remix

"Mt. Douglas, Late Evening" 18 X 24" Oil on Canvas.

As per my post of 12/03/09, here is an attempt to push things sideways a little it a more painterly way. I wanted to use all the elements of "pure painting" while still holding firmly onto the motif. I was much more concerned with the overall effect and the surface quality of the paint than with anything else. Things seem to harmonize pretty well, although I may take another poke at it sometime, to bring some of the compositional elements into a tighter alignment. Or not. The trick is knowing when to stop.

There's a pound of paint on this one--probably 5 coats on the sky. There's an almost-finished painting underneath, and, instead of throwing it out, I used all that frustration and thick texture underneath to contribute to the new image. I also wanted to leave lots of evidence of the struggle to create a tense and edgy painting of a serene subject.

Beauty is born from the inner struggle.

Open form and open colour both interest me. If I can only let my guard down long enough to allow it to happen.