I hesitated writing this post. Painting very large landscapes is a new venture for me. In the beginning they look so shockingly bad! Hideous! But snow’s still on the ground here and all the laundry’s caught up. Dishes done. Floors? Well, they can just remain dirty. Excuses, excuses! I had a photo I’d taken of my friend Rusty’s sheep and thought it would make a cool painting. This canvas is huge – 48×60″ — and coming up with a good compostion is key. Without a good flow to things, a “rhythm for the eyes”, it’s just a dud. But how to start? I was a music major, for heaven’s sake. I had to just guess what to do first. Moosing in where things went seemed like a pretty good idea.
Once I had an idea of the horizon, trees and sunlight/shadow areas, I started wiping away bits of areas for sheep. Smiling and sighing, I had to take a break at one point and go sit in the sunlight on the porch. Ah! What was that? The twitterings of goldfinches! Now where had I left their feeder? Rummaging around in the garage, I found it, refilled with thistle seed and hung it up. OK then. Time to face The Monster in the studio.
Margie Guyot Art 