A Sad "Tail"

Tails!....I painted indoors! Plain and simple! I guess in some respects I could say I "lost"...."confined to barracks". On a perfect sunny Autumn day...blue skies...sumptuous colour...no wind....I was under the lights at the easel doing what I couldn't get down to for over a week. It had glared at "Me"... and I could not not see a way around the too angry ...menacing clouds that hung like funerary draperies over the rest of the composition. I had created this tension purposely... to emphasize the storm's departure...and the return of light and calm to Leo Mosher's Rose Bay home and fish sheds and stores. For a week it paralysed any further movement towards finishing.

After my "flippant" decision to get down to business...I went out for a short one hour walkabout out of the village...took in the colour and came back determined to be done with the piece and to ensure that I was not trapped into the same predicament again tomorrow. Fine weather was forecast.... So..."Bite the bullet"!... "pitter-patter...just get at 'er"!

I brushed in the sky area with Winsor & Newton's Liquin to make blending easier and began feeling my way with a variety of warm lights and darks to lay on top of the "menacing" aspects. At first it seemed awkward and unsuccessful...but gradually I felt the "Flow" returning...and the sky started to have the softer ...warmer form...yet retained the stormy aspect first intended. It was easy then to visit other parts of the composition randomly as I customarily do...adjusting hue,values and edges...until I reach a pleasing state of finish.

Strange...that after a week of indecision...paralysis...avoidance...a "solution" is brought forward with two or so hours of determined effort... and some courage...and lest "I" forget...sacrifice. Sometimes "waiting out the storm"...the one in the mind's eye pays dividends. Patience is often not my strongest suit when it comes to painting. I think "I"...(meaning my Inner Spirit)...personality am drawn to outdoor painting and prefer it...despite the weather intrusions and hardships...based simply upon the spontaneity and freedom that comes out of being forced to decide and paint quickly by the always shifting and short presence of light in the subject before me.

So I offer "Drying Out at Leo Mosher's, Rose Bay, Nova Scotia" as evidence that: "Patience is...(indeed) a virtue"... even for a colour-drunk outdoor painting "junkie"....comme "Moi"! Hope that "You" like the result...and that my experience and actions might encourage someone out there to: "Keep the Faith"!
At the end of the day.. "I" guess "I"... won after all!

Good painting to All!
Cheers!
Bruce