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| Madeover: "Above the Canyon" 9x12 oil / Available Read about my process below |
Once in awhile, when I'm out painting, the energy of the scene will take over. That is, I lose control and am at the mercy of the landscape. That's what happened with the original painting. (See below.) Looking back at it, I'm not sure what caught my eye, unless it was the movement of the clouds and the shadows on the land. The piece has energy to it, but it's caught in the mid-values, and it has an unorganized complexity that concerns me. I decided to give it one of my more "extreme" makeovers.
First, I dealt with the cloud pattern. In the original, you can detect some sort of pattern, but I wanted to strengthen and simplify it. Using my sky color, I carved back into the clouds, reshaping them. Next, I wanted to do the same with the shadow patterns on the mountains, so I increased the contrast and simplified those, too. Finally, the flat ground, I thought, was a muddle. I decided to add a sliver of canyon. I've always liked the view of the Rio Grande Gorge in Taos, New Mexico; from a certain viewpoint, it looks like a split in the earth, and I decided to introduce that here. Although the painting has become a fantasy scene, I much prefer it to the plein air painting that lies beneath it.
By the way, I apologize for the lack of step-by-step photos. When I'm painting, I so often get carried away and forget. But I'll tell you a secret—I'm glad I forget. It keeps me "in the moment."
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| Original Plein Air Painting |
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| Extreme Makeover! "Above the Canyon" 9x12 oil / Available |
