A Painting Gone Awry

A Lemon of a Painting

 
I am here blogging as one painter to another on the struggle we go through to put paint to paper (or canvas) and end up with anything we’re remotely proud of.

 I just ran water  all over my recent watercolor in an effort to salvage a painting that has gone awry.

I started it yesterday with such high hopes. The drawing was good; the composition was good; the initial washes were good or so I thought. 

But the painting went awry. Although the painting wasn't finished, I was completely satisfied with the results at the end of the day yesterday.

Today I began again with high hopes, but I noticed that some of the darks that I painted yesterday had dried darker and with edges that were much too hard. Now I know what that means--I was painting wet-on dry when I should have been painting more wet-on-wet.

But my recent wet-on-wet watercolors were just that—way too wet. And when they dried they were all washed out and with little change in value or color intensity.

So I thought I would be more deliberate and use more paint and less water. But the execution was lousy, obviously. And the result? A painting gone awry.

I know it takes years, or at least 10,000 hours, to become proficient at anything.

Painting may take longer.

When my water-logged painting eventually dries, I will try again to get it right or at least to a state of equilibrium somewhere between awry and a masterpiece.

Keep On Painting