Day 6:

Hydrangea's from my garden
8x8 Oil on panel

I'm already having trouble deciding what to paint.  I need to make my daily paintings fairly simple so as to complete them in a day (a few hours or less a day).  Yet I get bored with just one plain item.  I want paint things that excite me or stir some kind of thought or emotion.  So, I need to "feel it".  Who knows, one day I see something and it sparks no reaction whatsoever and a few days later, I'm itching to recreate it through a painting.  This one, while only a single object, had enough texture, variety, color (challenges) to get me going.  I am very pleased with the results.  I was standing a bit over the subject as opposed to looking at it at eye level and I think it shows.  This painting also went through the love/hate process that I encounter with all my paintings.  In fact, I figured this one might end up in the trash or painted over.  I really like how the shadow turned out.  I will let you in on a little secret, the shadow was not at all like that.  I had drapery in the background and I started to paint it as I saw it and hated the look so I changed it to this.  The other worry I had with this one, as I am finding I am encountering, is over-working it.  Knowing when to stop.  I could stop and let them dry and come back to them and fix/change the problems, but I am trying to keep these all alla prima (Italian for meaning at first attempt) or wet on wet.  It is a challenge with oils to be sure but I like the challenge.  It's the best way to grow.