Meadow Land. 6x11 approx., oil on linen panel. 2016
Over the course of the year the reject pile in my studio has grown ever larger. Even though I often purge it of the truly bad stuff, it still holds more work than I'd like.
To this end, I decided to split the pile into four smaller groups:
- Things that could be re-painted as larger works. These are typically good studies which I did on a small canvas that would work in a larger size. This is a complicated category because these smaller paintings often get framed and offered for sale in their own right. The ones that escape are in the minority.
- Paintings that need re-work. Ones that might look better if they were more fleshed out, including paintings that I started in plein air. There are slightly more of these.
- Good for studies. Things that are worth keeping because some area in them is painted well enough that the idea could be re-used in another work, but otherwise not good enough to sell. These are in a small majority.
- Junk. Things that are headed for the trash can.
The painting above falls into the second category; it's one that I sketched out earlier in the summer and left unfinished. The existing paint layer was thin and completely dry, making it easy to develop and grow the idea further.