Whenever I have a show, no matter how many pieces sell, I bring home the rest and wonder why they didn’t sell. Then I think about the ones I’ve had the longest, pieces that I have improved on each time I show them again. How can I make these pieces better?
I did this scene as an 8×10 to test it out. It was the beginning of my phase of painting orange groves with hills and snow-covered mountains, which coincided with my beginning forays into plein air painting. This type of scene embodies the best parts of Tulare County—rural, citrus, foothills, snowy Sierra.
It was fun, but of the quality that caused my dearest and closest (and most honest) folks to ask if I was finished with it. So, I touched it up again, and it Is better. But it still hasn’t sold.
In spite of this little painting’s lack of success, I still love this scene. I painted it again, this time 24×24″. (Sometimes I actually do paint what I love instead of just what I think might sell.)
Now we’re cooking with gas! Brighter colors this time, because as I develop my skills and “voice” as a painter, I gain more freedom to exaggerate and embellish (but within reason, because I am still a leading citizen of Realville).
Three shows in good galleries (well, come on, I know this is Tulare County, so they are non-profit galleries rather than big city pushy money-hungry galleries) and it hasn’t found a home.
Think, think, think, AHA!
First, let’s try a little better living with technology, and tiptoe into the AHA. Using Photoshop Junior, I combined Tulare County’s Best II with a detail from a more recent painting of the same genre.
What do you think now? (almost said, “How do you like them apples?”)
Yeppers, Tulare County’s Best will get even better.
*NFS means Not For Sale, because it isn’t finished yet.
5 Comments
Tulare County’s Best II painting. I know the foothills are kinda rounded, but maybe they need some angularness on the tops of the foothills? Or some rocky out croppings? Just a thot.
Thanks Melissa, I will take that under advisement!
I hope I am among Your People; you’re certainly among mine! They’re all that count, right??
I like it! It just needed more detail, like the barns and the splash of oranges in the foreground.
(You should have written, “So, how do you like them oranges?”)
There are so many approaches to putting in details: some say confine them to one area of the painting, preferably the middle ground (rather than foreground or background). I continue to flail around, and retouching a painting usually means adding more detail anywhere I can. The Big Boys and Girls of the ArtWorld don’t agree with this. I don’t see them hovering around with checkbooks, and I doubt that if they were around, they’d approve of anything I paint. They are not My People.