So I didn’t actually go to Radium to paint this–it was a commission painting that I did at the end of November and it was painted from a photograph. It was an interesting challenge for me and very different from the way I usually work. I ended up setting up my easel in the living room so I could still paint in natural light, as if I was still painting it from life, and I used my laptop to view the photo while I painted. I painted it over several days and in the same time period every day which turned out to be between 11:00 am and 2:00 pm as it was the best light in the living room. Also maybe because I imagined that the light in the photo was more of a morning light, although I could see it being afternoon light as well.

It was very different from life painting–a completely different skill set. The biggest difference, aside from the light and not being there in person, was the sense of time and urgency, if that makes sense. With a frozen image, I could work forever on it, but that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. I think I have honed a skill of making snap decisions on site, and editing, and working quickly. With this one I constantly felt I was close to overworking it. Now I don’t think that I did, but I had to keep stepping away from it and stopping myself before I went too far. This is something I have always had to work on, even when painting on site. One of my University professors once told me that I should always stop just BEFORE I think I am done because I had a tendency to overwork things.