A Little More About Seeing

There is a "rule" that is drummed into our heads over and over about painting what you see, not what you know.  Most of the time we do this successfully, but sometimes we can be blind-sided by looking at the wrong details or trying to solve the wrong problem without realizing it.  I will use one of my own paintings to show you what I mean.

Initially I was satisfied with this painting. I felt like the space was believable, and I liked the mysterious sense of place.  Throughout the painting process my attention was on certain details: suggesting the trees in the background, keeping an abstract freshness, and the foreground interest. All along, I felt like the stream above the waterfall was a minor player and easy enough to suggest - my main concern was the perspective issue - making sure the water stayed flat. I was happy at this stage - but when I set the painting up and sat down to evaluate it, I knew something was off.

The problem was centered around my minor player, the upper stream.  I noticed that I'd created a sloping, unnatural oval shape that looked like an egg, so I re-worked the stream.  This helped, but a new problem cropped up: because I was working wet paint over dry paint, there were some awkward edges where the water met the bank. I tried repainting the bank grasses while "water" was still wet: it didn't work like I'd planned. 

So here we are, stuck with some new problems.  At least the egg in the center is less obtrusive, but those hard and awkward edges are now a major eye trap.  I wasn't sure what do do next. 

I liked the new detail in the background, which helped to define the space.  The overall look was a little less abstract than my original plan, and I hadn't touched the foreground - which remained very abstract and effective.  This was still a painting that interested me even though it wasn't quite right.  I put it aside and moved on to the point where I wasn't even thinking about this painting much.  It was stored in a room I use for paintings that are considered "finished" but just need to dry.

Then the holidays rolled around and my store room - which is also the guest bedroom - needed to be readied.  As I moved the paintings out I set this one up - and immediately, I could see the problem.  All that focusing on shapes and edges - absolutely necessary, don't get me wrong - kept me from seeing the real problem.

It was the unnatural color of the water.

I looked carefully at my reference photo: the water was gray - greenish gray alternating with bluish gray, with white foam where the water collides with the rocks.  I thought about the location that inspired this painting - about the rivers I visit regularly -  no where is the water that particular shade of blue. 

Worse - the more I had concentrated on the shape and the edges, the bluer the water had become.  Yes, the edges were still awkward, but the combination of the wrong color, wrong value, and wrong shape actually threw the painting off - not the edges.  Why had I not realized it before?

How often do we spend our energy focusing on selected areas in a painting, while allowing our brain to "tell" us about other areas, areas we 'know" without having to "see" ?   It's easy to do: there's so much to remember and master - but the next time I'm in that evaluation stage and something feels off, I know what questions I'm going to ask. 

My "know-it-all" brain might not like the answers.

 

 

Final version "Unnamed Stream"

30 inches by 30 inches, oil on canvas

 

 

 

Comments

[TracyWall]

Wow! Great problem-solving. I didn't notice it either as I read, but seeing the final... I like it even better.
Great investigation via the elements of art, and here's to 'standing back'!

[Sue Smith]

Hi Gracia,

Thank you for your thoughtful analysis. There are aspects that I liked about all three images - aspects that I either lost or which no longer seemed effective as the painting went through the various stages. It is a curse of the artist,especially now with digital cameras to record everything - to see how paintings changethe more we work on them, and then wish we could recapture certain effects. Believe me, I have ruined more than my share of paintings trying to recapture a color or brush mark that I lost, only to make things worse. I have decided that for me, I need to make a decision thata painting will be about a specific idea and then paint it that way, saving other ideas for another day. I appreciate your thoughts about how the color contrasts set the mood and no doubt they will appear in a painting in the future.

-------Original Message-------

[Gracia Molloy]

Hi Sue,
I appreciate your blog and thoughts you have shared about working on 'Unnamed Stream.'
I can see what you are saying about the last two samples and understand what you were going for. That being said, "When I visually look at the two samples, it seems to me the next to the last example has more MOOD with the blue/complimentarty color to the autum setting that is on the creek above area. (I don't know if I'm describing myself very well, however, it just seems to me that image 'pops' with lighting contrast and value contrast that is bold and wonderful.
Yet, both images are very well presented and the final version is beautiful too.
mmmmmmm us artists always critiqueing. smile and hugs to you. Thanks for sharing a wonderful blog. Gracia

[Donald Diddams]

I like how you resolved this -- more action upstream, and the change in value helps balance the composition. Funny how sometimes things like this become clear when returning with fresh eyes.

[Patrice Federspiel]

Great article. I always enjoy seeing a painting emerge. One of the questions I ask myself while painting, is "what does this painting have to teach me about my life?". In this case I might wonder what issues I'm not seeing while I'm focused on the "problem". What's underneath, what is the metaphor being painted?

[Fi]

Ah, the wonders of putting a creation aside and looking at it with fresh eyes at a later date.

[S. Tschantz]

How very true. While I am one of those teachers who stress painting what you see, not know, knowing what to look at can be very, very important!