Sunday, August 24, 2008

Bayou Shack - WIP 1



My friend, Carol Kennedy, provided me with this photo from her brother, who has given permission for me to paint from his photos. Since she is such a good friend and her brother is such a good photographer and gracious with his permission, I cannot refuse her request (comment below) to show the WIPs of this painting. I have misgivings showing it at this messy stage, however! It is also at the stage where I have to force myself to go forward since it doesn't look like it will amount to much, but I usually just need to let it mature a bit and keep working on it and they eventually do turn out fine. I just don't like these early stages.

Carol's brother, Fred Reed, lives on his boat and travels around all the navigable waterways both foreign and domestic, and takes great out-of-the-way photos. This one just blew me away. I have not drawn on any of the wonderful cast shadows from the slatted deck cover and the great value shifts in the photo, so hopefully this will come alive when I can start adding those. This is my change of pace painting from the Prickly Pear painting I am working on at the same time.

Next, I will fine tune the foliage a bit and make the shoreline and waterline more like the photo than it is now. Then, I can get rid of that distracting masking tape and start working on the shack - great weathered wood and cast shadows!

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