The Evolution of a Painting


I'm very happy to say that I've finished the painting I've been working on over the past few weeks, yay! 
Sometimes a painting can take so long that I imagine it'll never reach the end! This one was made during some challenging personal times and maybe that's one of the reasons it took me so long to finish. The strange thing is, that throughout the making of it I kept on thinking of the word 'peachy' and although I felt far from peachy, I decided it would make a nice title for it so I've decided to call it 'Feeling Peachy'!
Here's what it looked like at the very beginning, acombination of collage papers and acrylic paint. I fell in love with that beautiful patch of orange quite quickly and my feelings didn't change as you will see!

I painted the sky mauve and the beginnings of buildings and trees were appearing.

Here's a close-up showing the house I painted, a stage further than the last picture, it looked like it was here to stay but providence had other ideas!
I paint intuitively and therefore have no plan of the subject matter or what colours will dominate. I make layer upon layer of shapes and drawing until I feel there's a harmony throughout the picture.
The imagery reveals itself to me as I'm working. I love the layering effect because I feel it gives so much depth and mystery to the painting. This can take a long time but it's a way of working that can occasionally happen quickly or like this painting, can take an age!


And so it had to be. The big house had to go and in its place seemed to be a smaller green one. At this stage I was trying to convince myself the painting was finished but I kept getting niggling feelings about the way the little green house overlapped the lighter house on the right hand side. I wasn't comfortable with it.

So I changed it...

I also removed the row of green flowers that were on the left hand side and added more detail to the patch of green next to my sacred patch of orange. ;)


I'm very happy with the outcome, it always amazes me that throughout the process a painting can look to me such a mess a lot of the time and then things begin to click into place until finally everything is as it should be.
And that's the reason we do it isn't it? :)

I'm not going to be offering this painting for sale yet because it's going to be part of an exhibition I'm having with another artist in Devon. More about that in a future post. Please click here for more details.

If you find that you quite like this painting and would like to have it as a beautifully framed print or a tote bag or a rug (yes a rug!) or something else, I've listed it for you in my Society6 shop. Do pop over and have a browse, there's loads to see! 
So I'll leave you with a few examples below and say a big thankyou for coming here today and for reading down the post to get this far. :) I've been quite ill this week but I'm slowly recovering. It's nice to have reached the weekend and have time to relax a bit isn't it? I hope you have a lovely weekend and enjoy looking at my new designs. xx









Comments

Gretel said…
That is sooo lovely Jess! I think introducing more green was a great idea, the colours are gorgeous together and it all has a Chagall-esque dream feel about it. X
Dear Fireflies said…
Oh my, this is so beautiful, Jess! I absolutely love the depth of colors you've created here. And that flower tree? I wish I have one just like it in my front yard! I'm sorry you have been a bit down... I hope you're feeling better. :)
Charlotte said…
It is a wonderful picture Jess, very life affirming and with a lot of joy in it, though I was not surprised that you were working through other things as well.
Deaerest Jess, I am sorry to hear you were ill! I do hope you can recover to get back to work, or just feeling up to your tasks! YOur work looks fantastic in these items! Society6 sounds like fun. A friend suggested this to me way back when I was trying to create art. It somehow makes your work just POP OUT as it's put into these formats! BE WELL! Anita
busybusybeejay said…
thanks for sharing that with us.Hope you feel better soon and that a nice relaxing weekend has helped you on your way.Barbara
Paper rainbow said…
Oh JESs ! I love this! I also loved seeing your process. The way you intuitively home in on a colour you like and go with it. Letting feelings dictate your path. I an very excited to see you are having exhibition soon. What are blog rules when preparing work for an exhibition? I am glad you are showing us what you are making. I'm squirreling away on exhibition stuff but am not sure whether to share via my blog or not...anyway I'm glad to see what you are up to and now I know your other pieces will be amazing!
I really enjoyed your blog. Your paintings and photos are wonderful.

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