Start Fresh Again

When I began this painting I had decided to approach my process in a new way. Instead of mixing colors on the palette, I took Tad Spurgeon’s advice (through his website), to mix the colors directly on the canvas and develop the painting from there. At first it seemed like I could be into something, hoping the new approach would take me on another direction. But after the canvas was covered with the first paint layer I couldn’t help thinking that everything looked grey and muddy. I hate muddiness! In order for me to keep working I needed to get the painting back to square one. Again, I covered the surface with earth tones and some Zinc white. It was time for a fresh start

I let it sit and dry for a couple of days, although I could have worked on it some more the very next day due to the fast drying time of the Canada Balsam medium I’m using. As always I start working on the background, an important element in my work since it sets the mood of the painting. In trying to keep the balance between warm and cool tones, I chose to work the background with King’s Blue. Recently I have been very interested in different blue pigments, and this was an excuse to put that interest into practice.