Baby Steps

Just in case I haven't mentioned it before, it takes me a long, long time to finish a painting. Mostly it's because oil paint has to dry before I can paint over it (much of what I do is about building up layers of color and tone) but other times it's because I see something that needs to be changed, and I...just...don't...want...to...DO...it.

There were black lines on some of the art pieces on the back wall of Counterpoints, and for months now I've been feeling like they're too assertive, but I just didn't want to do the tedious work of fixing them. But today I mixed up a greyish color and carefully painted over the lines with a fine brush. It does look better. But you'll barely see much difference between today's work and the last posting of the painting.

Counterpoints, © 2016, work in progress

Same thing with this one: I worked for a long time on the prominent hand, but it's still not right.

A Lady in a Red Hat, © 2016, work in progress

On the plus side, saw my gallery owner today and she made me feel good about my work. She likes the genre pieces, encourages me to continue in this direction, and says this will be my "footprint." Since the recent sale of Chef, and the potential sale of J.P. Licks, I am out of my depressive funk and excited about moving on.

But I've got to figure out how to fix that hand.