I’m glad that I photo-documented the painting process for this one because what I thought was happening and what was actually happening were two completely different things. I went to bed after the first day of working on this feeling that I had completely wrecked the painting and had gone too far and that it had been perfect before I did this, that, and the other thing. On the second day I was ready to start over but thought I may as well keep working on it since I didn’t think that I couldn’t wreck it any further. Then it started to look okay. Then I decided to upload the photos that I had taken in process and to my honest surprise there was a real progression and it had gotten better and not worse.

I still think that the bottle is a bit overworked and therefore does not have the luminous quality of liquid in a bottle that I would have liked, but I guess I am still learning the medium.

This one was also a bit different for me because I used a photo to paint from. Whereas I usually paint from life, I was in the middle of making supper when I was struck by the assortment of junk on the dining room table and the reflections in the bottle (which is one part of the painting that I am quite pleased with); I didn’t have time to stop and paint and the light was changing so fast so I quickly snapped a photo. Working from a photo is always difficult for me. One thing that I tend to do is overwork it since I have all the time in the world to paint and am not racing the clock to get it done. Oddly enough, working from life I seem to make better decisions because of the fact that I am forced to work quickly–I am more economical in my decision-making somehow. Though one thing that working from photos does help me with is that I spend more time on the planning out the composition—something that I do need more practice with. The photograph also influenced the exaggerated sharpness of the bottle and softer background in this painting which I like.