As I was painting on this fifth pass over the canvas, the phone rang. I was between colors and just staring at the canvas, so contrary to my normal phone habits while painting, I answered.

The caller identified herself, and I was completely blank mentally.  Completely. I realized that I was concentrating so much on the details of the painting that I felt as if I was at the lake in Minnesota. In addition to not putting down the brush, not interrupting the flow of thoughts is another reason to let the answering machine pick up while painting.

After showing Lisa step #4, she made a few requests and changes and additions. I paid attention, then put on my strongest magnifying glasses and went to work on the details of the distant lake line along with some other things. I LOVE detail. (Hmmm, I’ve mentioned this before, yes?)

Here is the latest pass over the canvas:

The lake was looking rather ocean-ish. Because I couldn’t see the horizon line in any of the photos, and Lisa asked me to open up the trees for a better view of the lake, I was just baffled as to what to do. (My normal thing is to bury stuff that I can’t see under growing things.)

Lisa sent me a video, taken while standing on her dock and slowly turning 360 degrees around the entire lake view. I watched that video numerous times, and then paused it and studied the distant shore line. Aha! So THAT’s how a lake shore looks at a distance. . .

The house and windows now have tighter detail. There needs to be more shadow on the house, but not as much as in the photo sitting at the base of the easel. I’ll work on that next.

I began “planting” things below the house on the left. When Lisa advises me as to whether or not these are believable, then I’ll either turn them into something else or continue. (Well, duh, Captain Obvious.)