Monday, July 12, 2010

"Trout Water" 26x17 acrylic on masonite


Wow... this one was a long time coming! Started as a demonstration piece for this blog (see posts from October 2009), I originally intended the painting to include mountain bluebirds. But once I painted the bluebirds in, the magical feel of clear cold moving water and polished granite completely disappeared... and I was lost. I repainted the birds 3 or 4 times with almost no improvement and finally banished the unruly painting to the "future consideration" heap in the corner of the studio.


Finally, this morning after months of "thinking about it," I removed the bluebirds and PRESTO! The feeling I loved so much about this piece in the beginning was back. Funny thing about years of painting... it gives the artist the confidence to take chances, knowing full well any misstep can be corrected. It's a liberating feeling. So, when the birds were gone (flown away so to speak), I tweaked the colors a bit and finished the structure of the rocks on the stream bottom. When I stepped back, I knew it was finished... without those damned bluebirds!

3 comments:

Ray brown said...

You should call it Beautiful Bluebirds. Looks gret without the birds. Although I bet it didn't look half bad with them either!

Another good one, you are on a roll. --Ray

Jeremy Pearse said...

Lovely! Reminds me of the river rocks series that I'm still working on, I'm now inspired to get back to it!

Jim Bortz said...

Thanks, Jeremy. Good to hear from you.