April 16, 2019
View of our east pasture, inspiration for “Ancient Juniper.” The subject is a venerable old bush in the east pasture of our Lone Pine home. It sneaks into my consciousness and onto my canvas with some frequency! I painted this from memory.
This is the painting after the first couple work sessions. My typical painting practice is to work in warm colors one day, let it dry, then work in cool colors the next day.
Here’s the finished painting. I spend as much time as it takes to get the piece to resonate with a sense of place for me. That is critical. Sometimes the changes are small, sometimes not so small! Sometimes it happens in a few days. More often it takes a few weeks. And infrequently there are those problematic paintings that I just can’t give up on but end up working on for years. Truly. The changes are always essential. Unless they are not essential. That, friends, is the question!
Let’s keep in touch,
Marshall