King’s River

This is a 2 session painting. I’m trying this as a solution to the problems I have with extended painting periods. I find 2 hours is the point when I start to loose the sharpness of concentration and begin to slow down and overwork the painting. For this painting I did the under-painting of the ground part of the painting and then painted the sky to completion. (the first 6 minutes of the video below). The painting was left for 2 days to dry and the lower part finished.

Whereas there are advantages in this method, I found the 2 day wait disconnected me from the subject and it was difficult to get back into the painting. I was going to start another painting while this one was drying but I just couldn’t bring myself to get involved in another subject with this in my head. This is not unusual, I’ve discussed this with artists over the years who were involved in large projects. They were not able to do ‘the bit on the side’ while concentrating on the main task. So while ‘multiple session’ painting would work for me, it would reduce the number of paintings I actually complete.

For a break, I am going to do a few single session paintings. I like the ‘dicing with death’ of alla prima, where some of the ‘recovery from disasters’ procedures add a certain charm to the painting. I have the next alla prima painting finished as I write this, it was great. 1 hour and the job was done, no waiting for paint to dry, and all that entails.

Here is the video of this painting.