Day 5: Alton Road
If you live in Florida you know this kind of tree when you see it: the tree that has been cut around the power line. It has the oddest shape, nothing like any other tree out there. Although they may exsist in other places, I associate these oddly shaped creatues with Florida. This one in particular is on the way to my mother’s house and I drive by it every day, and every day the way the light catches it in the afternoon makes me say, “I’ve got to paint that!” This is not my first attempt at painting this tree on Alton Road, and I actually don’t think that it will be my last because I have yet to do it justice and to have understood all of the nuances of the scene. Today’s attempt was to capture the light and general feel of the street, with that funny cut tree and the play of light and shadow that is there on these sunny afternoons.So far I am learning a lot in the creation of these little paintings and am becoming more conscious of my working habits. What I see is that just because it is a small painting does not mean that it takes proportionally less time to paint, in fact the more successful paintings I think are the ones I spent the most time working on. Inside of this I am discovering a new level of discipline that painting requires. I mean the discipline to keep sticking with a painting until it’s finished, until those little things that are “off” seem right or to fix and fiddle, put that in, take that out, until I have that sense of completion, rather than the rush of a good block in, where everything is more or less there, but not everthing is right.So, I’m upping the ante. I realized today that I have not been working these paintings until I know that they are finished, I’ve been letting them be good enough. So bring it on discipline, here I come!You can buy this or any previous paintings from the project on my website by clicking on “my website” to your left. Thank you again for your interest in my work, your support has got me fired up, so thanks, thanks, thanks!Until tomorrow..