Try Again Another Day!

Interesting discovery today. I was attempting a watercolor of the mock crab blossoms currently in bloom. The painting did not work.

Last week I was attempting a watercolor of a planting of petunias. That didn't work.

These two paintings didn't work for the same reason. I realized today that when I photograph something I want to paint I use the lens to compose a painting, to fill a rectangle. When I paint from life, I paint exactly what I see in front of me because that's what painting from photo sketches has taught me to do. Today I was painting a life-size version of the mock crab blossoms in front of me; last week I was painting a life-size version of petunias. I made no effort to "compose" a painting used to having that work already accomplished when I start to paint -- THAT must be one of the challenges of "plein air" painting (god I find that term pretentious but I imagine it isn't). Fortunately, with the Ampersand aquabord, I can just wash failure right off the surface!