Finished?

Until a customer is happy, I don’t consider commissioned art work to be finished. However, I took a chance on this painting and signed it before the customer replied. 

A lifelong friend helped me work out the finishing touches of this painting. We sat together with the latest photo of the painting, using her suggestions and my Photoshop (Junior version) skills to try some things. We were both very pleased. Look at this “map” we created; every place we made a change, I put in an arrow so I could follow it later. (Be ye not dismayed – this is a photo with blue arrows, not blue arrows on the actual painting.)

I set up my laptop by the easel and began. It is very incremental, and you may not be able to discern the changes. Just be polite, ‘K?

Basically, I added shadows to some lemons, added darker ones hidden in the leaves, and then took some of the hard clean edges off the furrows (that is the dirt/moss area between the rows, not the eleven between my eyebrows – thank you for your concern).

Like Lemon Meringue Pie

This painting will require many layers, and I fully intend to enjoy every minute of the process. It isn’t necessary to talk about turning lemons into lemonade – this painting is more like lemon meringue pie.

It was dry, so I relayered the mountains and hills, then moved into the lemons on the left, then the ground, then finally a bit of cleaning off my brushes by putting more green into the grove. 

When this is dry again, I’ll relayer the sky before continuing on the lemons and the grove. I want this baby to be PERFECT. 

P.S. I love lemon meringue pie, and that’s saying something, because as a former pie baker (it was just a job, not a career), pies do not excite me. Further, one of my life’s guiding principles is “If it isn’t chocolate, it isn’t worth the calories”.