Lilacs and Peonies
The Evolution of a Painting
I did a painting back in June that I thought was done. It came off the easel and got prepared to frame. In August I took another look at it and thought.."ugh, this painting has some real issues!". So it went back on the easel and acquired a new life. Once again I felt satisfied and off it came from the easel and back in the stack of "waiting to be framed" pieces. Today I realized it still felt awkward to me and back on the easel it went! Now some of you may like the first version best, some may like the second version and still others of you may think , "what a hideous painting, why does she bother!" none the less, for me it is a learning process and sometimes it's just necessary to make the journey!
I thought you might find the steps interesting so I decided to post all three along with a bit of an explanation as to what I saw as I progressed through the changes. I think I will start from the beginning.....
In June I painted "Peonies, Iris and Lilacs". I liked the delicate feel of the flowers and wanted to keep the background light to follow through with that sense of delicate lightness. I tried something different with the little plant stand in the composition. It's a pretty little plant stand and the flowers seemed to sit just right on it.
Peonies, Iris and Lilacs 17x21
Now in August I realized that the background was too light and had no real interest in it. The table while an interesting shape felt awkward and distracting to me now, as did the heavily saturated color in the Iris......so, along came part two.......I could no longer call it Peonies, Iris and Lilacs, because well, it no longer had an Iris in it, so it got a new name with it's new life. Spring Bouquet.
Spring Bouquet 17x21
Well, with time that vase wore on me. It just wasn't comfortable. It felt stiff and contrived, so I thought, "just a little tweaking...." Once I got involved it felt that some other problems existed as well so here it is...life number three.
Lilacs and Peonies 17x21
Is it done? I think so. But hey, one never knows for sure about these things!
