I started this painting in life class today; it was the first session of a two-session pose. Pretty good likeness already, but I need to refine everything, and I’ve hardly done any work on her torso. Still, a good start.
Geoff Watson, “Sheba (Day 1),” unfinished, oil on linen panel, 11” x 14,” 2019.
I wanted to practice painting cars today, so I parked myself at the local supermarket. I was counting on shoppers taking 45 minutes to get groceries. Instead, most cars stayed for 10 minutes, or so it seemed! The result is an unfinished painting, unfortunately. Plus I took a terrible photo!
Next time I’ll try sketching in the shape of the entire mass of cars, then moving to individual cars, rather than the other way around. I’m still not sure whether to work from back to front or vice-versa.
Geoff Watson, “Cars at the supermarket (unfinished),” May daily painting #23, study, oil on panel, 8” x 10,” 2019.
I started this study in the early evening. My idea here was to focus attention on the cars, and I had some success depicting a couple of them. But they all were moved in the hour or so I was standing there, so I didn’t finish any of them. On top of that, I didn’t make clear that the building on the right is a repair shop, and the sun went down so fast that I didn’t have time to fix it. So the title of the painting is all too apt: it’s waiting for repairs!
Geoff Watson, “Waiting for repairs (in progress),” May daily painting #14, oil on panel, 8” x 10,” 2019.
Not every “daily painting” is going to be a masterpiece, and today’s unfinished effort demonstrates that! I was planning to focus on rain falling in puddles behind the car, but I never got to the puddles, lol. My back started really hurting after about 45 minutes of painting the car, and I called it quits. Hey, at least the car was on the right track. (So to speak.)
Art marketers sometimes say one should never post failures on one’s website. “Only show your best work!,” they say. I think that’s good advice for an art show. But for my blog, I prefer to have an honest conversation with my readers, to talk about what happens when paintings fail, to keep a record of my progress, and to think about how to improve.
Geoff Watson, “Unfinished driveway” (unfinished), May daily painting #5, oil on panel, 8” x 8,” 2019.