I got back to work on the 24 x 36″ cradled panel after a break for the week-end trip to Dallas.

I just couldn’t leave this as a tree…….I love trees, and they appear all the time in my work ever since I started painting. However, I am not planning to revert to any manner of realism and this was going that way……..IT IS NOW GONE.

First round in the studio I brushed on every conceivable color and range of red and orange, purple, golds……… Just covered pretty much all of the previous image. I started turning it all around and I need to remind myself to do this often so I don’t get locked into a design that isn’t going anywhere. OR, keep myself from doing something a little more out of my current box and comfort zone.

Next session……..adding wax takes an enormously longer time that wiping out an acrylic under-painting….My back can testify to this.

Now the thing is horizontal and it starts looking like a landscape…(after adding a lot more color besides red). So much for getting out of the comfort zone, huh.  The handling of the encaustic pigments IS out of my comfort zone for this size work.

This painting is beginning to mesmerize me with all it’s little nuances of color. IT SUCKS. It is not a painting, it is a lot of color nuance. When you get away from it, it dies from no distinct value contrast…..anywhere. SO, I take it out to take a photo at this point.

Then I just bite the bullet and paint a whole 5″ across the top WHITE.

Hum…. I didn’t see this picture before I did the white….looks better outside…However this painting would not be hung outside.  I may have made a mistake with the white…but what’s done is done and I will have to work with it.

Here it is with the white across the top…….darn it, it looks crooked and I even measured.  Oh well. It will not stay this way long……but that will come later as I have to run to the dentist, pick up a painting and make a run into the grocery store.

My thoughts are running toward putting that violet back in the top where the white is but this time it will be a paler, grayer value/hue which I hope with give more contrast without the lack it had before.  We’ll see next session.

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