I started this piece several years ago and ended up scrubbing over the whole piece In frustration! I pulled it out yesterday as part of a plan to bring back to life favorite pieces that were beyond my ability to finish when they were begun.
I’m quite pleased with the progress i made yesterday. I start by redrawing the important shapes with charcoal, ignoring the grey film that covered most of the surface. The worked again on making the driftwood look like wood and not stone. A real challenge for me! While I’ve never strived to be a realist painter when painting on location I wanted certain aspects of the day and place to be suggested. I’m really about surface and paint quality used to create form and interrelationships on the flat surface that reflect our/my world.
Next I’ll be working with the stone wall trying to decide how much to shift the value and hue from that of the driftwood. I’m really enjoying it at the moment so I may move it off the easel and choose another piece I have in mind that needs highlights strengthened, or so I think now! I’ll have to when the paint goes down if I’m right.