Bluebird's Garden

Bluebird's Garden, 11x14" oil, Diane Mannion

Painting Minute by Minute

Set up this still life to have something to work on minute by minute over the past week.  It's not always possible to have large blocks of time without distractions. 

Painting from life, inside or out is a joy!  Working from photo reference, even when displayed on a monitor, seems like drudgery to me.  Having a still life set up and always available is one solution to keep the brush moving.  

I paint outside in two or three hour blocks of time before the light changes.  Painting inside, minute by minute over a few days gave me time to reconsider, change, and reflect on technique, color, values, and composition... the danger was in fiddling too much, over-working, and getting too tight.  

My goal here was to merge polished rendering with some of the spontaneous qualities of my plein air style.  Sometimes, elusive visual goals seem just out of reach, the problem is when to call it "finished" and stop.  Let this one stand as is and move on to the next.