The Color of Light: An Artist's Blog

This painting was juried into the NW Pastel Society 35th Annual International Exhibition, and I brought it home recently. Looking at it framed and outside of the studio helped me see something that had been bothering me, sort of simmering under the surface since I had created it. 

The trunk was like a black hole. It had no form. I had worked from a photo I took on a sunny day in our kids' backyard, and photos aren't accurate. I had relied too much on the photo and ended up with a boring, too dark trunk. 

I'm proud that the painting was accepted into a show pre-fix, but I needed to correct that trunk. It didn't take long once I unframed it and imagined where the light was hitting the trunk. I'm so much happier with it now. In fact, it's heading to one of my galleries next month. 

Sometimes we have to step back from a painting for awhile and then revisit it to see what needs to be corrected. I'm glad I didn't stash this in a closet because the fix made all the difference. 

Here's the painting before I fixed the trunk.