Downtown Bridge 2

I painted two other street scenes before trying this one again.
I wanted to simplify and orient towards achieving a sense of light
and abstraction. I left the trees out this time because I liked the
variety of color in the wall at right and didn't want to cover it up.
The things I admire in other painters' work, like different colors/shades
over a flat surface, I usually don't allow myself to do or I do it, then
smooth it out in the end. There's something about being faced with
a literal subject that makes me forget I don't want to treat it literally.
My perspective is off which is an easy fix but tackling this scene again
was a good learning experience overall.

Downtown Bridge

I was in my usual Sunday morning stupor when I realized that parking meters
downtown are free. Grabbed my camera, found a parking spot and walked
and took pictures until the battery died, 19 pictures later. Downtown San
Antonio is tiny and charming and needs to be walked to see the little courtyards
and pedestrian bridges. It took a lot of time to draw this and try to get the
perspective which kept my left brain so focused that my right brain just wanted
to scream "just throw some paint on it!" Well, that's good—maybe I can get them
to play nice together by letting them each have their way. I confess I was tempted
to paint in every vertical line carefully until I woke up and realized my aim is to
be messy. Long way to go but a day with even a little progress is enough these days.

Camp Street

Surrounding my small Victorian neighborhood are a lot of derelict industrial
buildings that are being revitalized or gentrified into fancy pants lofts. Not
sure why I hadn't been enamored of them before but suddenly they're very
rich subjects. And subjects that lend themselves to a lot of interpretation.
While painting heads I really feel the push/pull tug of trying to be somewhat
faithful while intending to not be and then I forget my aim is to make a
painting. The right brain/left brain thing. At the same time, I'm committed to
becoming somewhat proficient. So maybe alternating subjects is a way to
move forward? I felt no need to put in every window so maybe in the future,
I could leave out an eye or nose or a body part in a figure? Before signing off,
I just want to thank everyone who visits my blog and takes the time to comment.
 

TV Head 3

I'm finding it helpful to not worry about likeness because it
helps to forget I'm painting a head and remember that it's
really about painting planes, values and making color resonate.
And light, of course, but I haven't yet tackled that aspect with
any real focus. There's so much to learn.