At Batterymarch

I really enjoyed painting this in spite of running into problems along
the way. I felt I had a little more clarity on how to solve them, not
that clueless, frustrated feeling that sometimes descends. I'm working
towards a two-person show for next March and wanted to settle on a
subject that I could enjoy exploring for several months. I thought that
would be landscapes and took the Workman class to get a little more
knowledge under my belt. But as I looked at the landscape painters I
admire, it was clear they lived in rural areas, were immersed in their
environment and had all their senses engaged while making their
paintings. It made sense for me to switch to a city environment which
I am surrounded by. I'm feeling it's a good fit with a lot of varied
challenges ahead.

Just a note: My previous post "Rising" looks very bad in Blogger as
had the two paintings before that. It's very contrasty with the color
tending too cool whereas the actual painting and the photo of it is quite
soft with much more subtlety. The painting above looks great in
Blogger's preview but I'm holding my breath as I click "publish." I will
let you know in the next post if it's accurate. How do I correct this? Who
do you contact for help?

Turning

One of my goals lately is to work towards an interesting surface quality which 

hadn't yet appeared on my radar. I've been switching subjects as an exercise 

that forces me to think differently depending on the subject, then try to apply 

what I've learned to the next different subject. It's helpful for someone like me 

who tends to approach things the same way when what I wish to do is change 

or see transformation. Since switching from the way I used to work to more 

representational subjects, I long for the freedom that used to come naturally.  

There's a balancing act to work towards and it's good to identify it, because 
it's not always clear what my goal is. I'm working on a nude now, hoping to 
apply what I've learned to the figure but am still too tight—still fixated too 
much on getting it "right" which my brain tends to translate as "rigid." I may 
just have to accept that until something starts to shift on its own.