Waiting for paint to day

When you're an Oil painter, waiting for paint to dry is the norm.  I found that a bit frustrating years ago, as I wanted to get on and complete a piece of art, but nowadays I go with the flow as they say.  In fact, in many ways, it works in my favour by giving me time away from the painting, I then look at it again some weeks later and 'see it with fresh eyes', this enables me to know if anything needs more work.  

This is exactly what happened with this one...

"Break in the Clouds" had been set aside for some weeks, so when I put it back on the easel again, I could see where to add extra detail/s.  The danger is you can keep going, changing this, changing that, and get nowhere - in the end you have to say 'That's it done".... as with this one.  It has the atmosphere I was after.  

'Where is this scene'  I hear you ask.  It isn't far from home and sums up so many views across Exmoor.  When we go for a drive to Lynton and the Valley of Rocks, I catch glimpses of painting opportunities and have tried to capture some of them in memory but also some quick photos from the car.... as here  ⤵︎ 

Admittedly they aren't particularly great photos ... but they're certainly enough to jog my memory and even, as with the last picture, the clouds give me ideas for paintings.

As an artist, I'm very inspired by other artists.  Oh the list is endless.  Artists copy other Artists, it's a given and I love watching artists work, in person and also through Youtube.  Some of you may remember that I have taken various 1 or up to 5 day Workshops...mainly those have been in Watercolour.  They have served me well and I've taken away (even a very small part) some gem or idea that has gone into my work. 

The same goes for Youtube and various artists including Stuart Davies (I've mentioned him before on this blog).  His Channel is full of inspiration, although he works his landscapes the same every time.  Not a bad thing, it has to be said, and one thing he points out is getting artists to 'relax and not worry about applying paint to canvas' - just go for it and not avoid going back over an old painting.  The old Masters used to do that a lot.  X-Ray's of their works have shown they painted over and changed their artwork several times.  Lets face it, they made mistakes or weren't happy with their art, like the rest of us.

I had a 12x12 inch canvas painting which wasn't working, so I gessoed over it.  And there it sat waiting for 'Something'.  Then the other day I had that "eureka moment" - or at least a moment of "Oh just get on with it".  That was enough for me to put lots of lovely juicy paint on my freshly cleaned palette (nothing like a clean palette to start me off) and within 30 minutes I had painted this one ↴

~ ann ~