FOLLOW ALONG FOR THE NEXT FEW POSTS AS I WORK ON A CHALLENGING PAINTING

I want to create a painting of a bird with some mangroves in the scene. Same old, same old? Not really. Even though I have painted numerous pieces of these subjects I am going to attempt something different.

Painting "Ethereal"

INTRO
I had to think about how I was going to paint this one for a long time. I even lost some sleep about it; got angry and frustrated at myself for not have a single, clear style of painting and tossed back and forth whether to paint in detailed realism or keep it more painterly and loose. I finally decided to try and capture the 'un-capturable' ethereal nature of this scene in a loose, less detailed style as it seems ...

Here are two paintings of some mangroves, the first, "Peaceful Morning Blues" 11" x 14", is a small piece that was painted quickly on location (en plein air) and the second "Tranquillity Grove" 24" x 36" was painted from photographs in the studio.

When I work 'en plein air' (painting a scene on location) I generally......

Work fast

Use loose brush strokes

Usually do smaller paintings

Plan to complete the painting on one short sitting with maybe a few finishing touches back at the studio

When I paint from a photo I have many more options such as.......

Creating a large painting

Painting in as much detail as I like

Taking the time to plan the piece, make creative changes...

So why not just paint from a photo? - What's the difference to the artist and the artwork? In a word, everything!

"Stars and Stripes" Oil 8" x 10" for sale $500

What the artist sees on front of her/him when on location and what they see in a photograph are very different.

Also what the camera sees is very different.

Contrary to common perception a photo does not just duplicate the view. A camera will INTERPRET what it sees and the results will depend on it's settings and how the camera is designed and manufactured.

Here are 7 things that are different with a photo/camera:

- Colors can come out very different than what your eye will see

- The temperature of the colors can be very different than the ...