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Friday, September 20, 2013

Girl Fishing

Diane Mannion, Girl Fishing, 8x10" oil on linen

Tweeking Plein Air

A few notes about tweeking plein air paintings back in the studio.  There's something fresh about studies done on location and usually I like to leave them as they are.  But in the end, it's what makes a good painting that's important.  Therefore, I attempted to improve one back in the studio.

This morning I took a look at the first painting I did yesterday and decided to change it.  It's a dangerous operation but had to be done.  The orange beach bag in the foreground screamed, "Take me out!"  And so I did.  

Here's the first version and the tweeked one:
Diane Mannion, Morning View Tweeked, 8x10" oil on linen

Took out orange beach bag, detailed forground figure, faded other figures into background, fiddled with sun-struck palm on left, and added a few more lights in the foliage.  Lightened some of the shadows.  

Does it look any better?  What do you think?


Girl Fishing is the second plein air painting I did yesterday and I'm quite pleased with it.  Softened a few spots in the background this morning, but other than that it's the way it was created at the beach.


8 comments:

  1. Nan BurgerSeptember 20, 2013 at 8:50 AM

    Great work! You did the right thing!!! :). It looks beautiful

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  2. Lori QuartonSeptember 20, 2013 at 10:35 AM

    Looks much better! Very nice....

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  3. SandySeptember 20, 2013 at 1:45 PM

    Love "Girl Fishing on Beach". Nice sense of light and freshness to it.

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  4. Diane MannionSeptember 20, 2013 at 2:23 PM

    Thank you, Nan. As an artist I keep rethinking things. I should paint it and move onto the next... but could not stand that beach bag!

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  5. Diane MannionSeptember 20, 2013 at 2:24 PM

    Lori, thanks! It's a relief to know I didn't ruin it completely.

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  6. Diane MannionSeptember 20, 2013 at 2:26 PM

    Thank you so much, Sandy. I think I was warmed up after painting Morning View and I like Girl Fishing better. But my husband likes the third painting I did that day which will be posted tomorrow... that one only took thirty minutes or so and it might be the best.

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  7. carol edanSeptember 20, 2013 at 10:56 PM

    Love the tweaked version... especially love the girl fishing!!! I know how that simplicity is so hard to achieve!!!

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  8. Diane MannionSeptember 21, 2013 at 9:49 AM

    Thank you, Carol! The faster I paint the better I like the results. As long as I let myself believe it's just a quick study and not a polished work of art. Next time painting on location I'm bringing a timer.

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