Situational Ethics

I photographed a friends dining room, and thought this will be easy.

Ever thought that?

I'll just paint what's in the photo. It's a lovely room and I'll give my personal best

interpretation of it.

Yes, I tried to include the things that usually work, a light source, some softness, more colors. 

Even my daughter said yes, Mom, put that back in. I had already removed a window with curtains,

so I put it back in, thinking, I can make this work. 

But those things were not supposed to be in this painting. The painting didn't stop

looking sad and rejected until I removed all of those things. Finally, the painting could breathe.

The colors freshened right before my eyes. The focus became this unique perspective of this unique setting or seating.

The shadows, the angles, the lines, now they could speak. The simple colors now complemented 

each other.  The structures although hard, contain subtle color changes and surprising random, pops of color, all of which delighted me.

I often sketch before I paint a large painting, even painting a small color study to try to work out any issues on a small

scale, so I won't have a big problem to solve later.

But there are often questions that lead me to unexpected solutions.  These tend to bring the fresh, the surprising, the unique, the delightful one of a kind answers that I love to share with you.