It has been an uphill battle with the green monster. I have been trying to mix different greens, some warm, some cool, and some more intense than others. But no matter what I mixed once on the canvas it didn't work. It all blended together to form an almost neon green landscape. What is my problem? Why can't I get this right? I would ask myself frustrated.
Not all of the painting was bad, I do admit there were two areas I liked, but they needed to come together in one piece. A friend came over the other day and had a look at the painting and we both agreed on the parts that were good. But as he said "I liked it when...," I cringed, "...you had some of the ground showing through." I agreed I had overworked the thing and it seems like I was trying to rush to get it done. He was right, letting the warm tone of the ground show through in areas was a great balance for the green on top. I knew this, you need your warms and cools for the painting to work, but for some reason I became stubborn and kept adding different "warm" greens thinking this might resolve the problem. I had come to the point I feared most, to cover the painting with Burnt Sienna and build it back up.
I have grown to dislike the painting so much that covering seemed like a relief. How much of it would be covered I had no idea. At first I thought of applying an even opaque layer of color over it and rub out some areas I wanted to salvage. As I applied the paint I realized I didn't need to go that far. A semi-transparent layer was enough to do the trick and it left me with a hazy dark red landscape. It became moody and soon the scene went from midday to twilight. On the image above I have already started to bring the painting back to life by adding some greens and by working on the sky. Originally it all looked like the big brown cloud on the right edge of the painting. I've done more work since I took a picture of this stage last night and so far so good. The game plan now is to take my time and not over work it.
It has been an uphill battle with the green monster. I have been trying to mix different greens, some warm, some cool, and some more intense than others. But no matter what I mixed once on the canvas it didn't work. It all blended together to form an almost neon green landscape. What is my problem? Why can't I get this right? I would ask myself frustrated. 
Not all of the painting was bad, I do admit there were two areas I liked, but they needed to come together in one piece. A friend came over the other day and had a look at the painting and we both agreed on the parts that were good. But as he said "I liked it when...," I cringed, "...you had some of the ground showing through." I agreed I had overworked the thing and it seems like I was trying to rush to get it done. He was right, letting the warm tone of the ground show through in areas was a great balance for the green on top. I knew this, you need your warms and cools for the painting to work, but for some reason I became stubborn and kept adding different "warm" greens thinking this might resolve the problem. I had come to the point I feared most, to cover the painting with Burnt Sienna and build it back up. 
I have grown to dislike the painting so much that covering seemed like a relief. How much of it would be covered I had no idea. At first I thought of applying an even opaque layer of color over it and rub out some areas I wanted to salvage. As I applied the paint I realized I didn't need to go that far. A semi-transparent layer was enough to do the trick and it left me with a hazy dark red landscape. It became moody and soon the scene went from midday to twilight. On the image above I have already started to bring the painting back to life by adding some greens and by working on the sky. Originally it all looked like the big brown cloud on the right edge of the painting. I've done more work since I took a picture of this stage last night and so far so good. The game plan now is to take my time and not over work it. 
Comments
hope to see some of your works in person when i visit NYC this april.
cheers.