No. 2 Harbour Street

Following on from yesterday, this is the work I've done today on the small 8 x 8 inch canvas, which now has the title of No.2 Harbour Top.  I worked on three pieces today while I was stewarding at Burton Agnes Hall Courtyard gallery.  Working on several pieces gives space enough between each painting session for reflection, so you come back to a painting in progress with a fresh eye.

In the picture above you can still see quite a lot of the dressmakers tissue lines showing through.  I have roughly blocked in the colours with acrylic paint.

At this stage I am defining the shapes: large and small, looking at light and dark, warm and cool colours.   It is still nowhere near finished.

I am beginning to move towards the finish, sharpening up the edges, working firstly in positive and then in negative, juggling to try and get the effect I want.  It still has a long way to go.  I can see that the second and third houses from the left need to be a little duller to give some recession.  The boats need some shading and the whole picture needs the little finicky touches that make it finished.

I have left this at Burton Agnes so that I don't mess it up.  I will see it with fresh eyes on Monday when I go, and hopefully will be able to get it finished.  this is the most difficult part of a painting as it's so easy to go past the point where you should have stopped.

Although this blog is about painting every day, for me it isn't about 'a painting a day'  I know that I need to work on several paintings at any one time.  I think I have six 'in process' at the moment, from one that just has some gesso and molding paste on, to this one which is almost but not quite finished.

If I feel stuck, or just 'not on the mood', I make some 'beginnings' .  This may be gesso, crumpled tissue, prepping experimental boards with a very wide variety of textural materials, or perhaps just acrylic inks splattered onto thick paper or a canvas.  Usually after an hour of this sort of playing about I feel eager to get started on yesterday's 'beginning'.