From Structure to Serenity: The Decision Making Process in Painting

Recently, I shared a painting in progress photo on social media in which I said that I thought I knew where the piece was going; however, the background or initial layers had me rethinking things and my intentions for the painting.    
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You may be wondering what goes into the painting process, in particular, the decision making process.  It’s not as easy as you may think or at least, not every time. There’s decisions about color, composition, and line that have to be made.  You have to pull out everything you’ve ever learned along with all the skills, tricks, and tools.  Of course, you have to determine what to use and what not to use and that applies to all of the above, not just the tools.  With all these things taken into consideration, you still need to leave room for exploration.  It’s a dance of back and forth and listening to what the painting says.

In the case of this painting, I had several resource photos, but none were the exact composition I wanted.  I’d have to do some tweaking which is not unusual, but I did have a plan for what I wanted. I’m sure you know the quote,” the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry” and that was so very true for my plans.  For starters, I unexpectedly fell in love with the softness of the background and focal point on the horizon. Adding the cabana with its hard lines felt like too much of a stark contrast with the lightness and softness of the background.

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I experimented with adding the cabana with paint, but stopped myself before getting too far.  I added cut paper to mimic the structure.  Removing taped on paper is a lot easier than removing paint.   Being at odds with what I thought this painting would be and how the background appealed to me, I hit pause at leasts until the next day.

I needed time to consider what it was that first captured my eye and my heart to me from this moment in time.  It was the stillness and quietness of the fog as well as the egret gliding across the scene until it came to perch on top of the cabana.  It wasn’t the cabana itself.  The background I had fallen in love with depicted that feeling of peace much more than the cabana ever would.  

Problem solved.  No cabana, but then that meant removing the paint that had been applied and adding the background color where it was needed.

Once the structure was removed, there were other things to consider such as how much detail to add to the foreground.  I went back and forth with this as well.  I wanted some detail while keeping  the simplicity of the initial layer.  

"Ghost in the Mist" A

"Ghost in the Mist" B

Meet "Ghost in the Mist."  I'm still little torn between the two versions above.  The differences are subtle, but they are there nonetheless.  What do you think?  Do you see the differences?  Let me know in the comments which one of the two you prefer.