A Rush to the Finish Line
A rush to the finish line is what NOT to say to yourself when headed out to paint in a 1-day plein air painting competition. Instead, the best strategy I’ve found is to search until I find the exact thing I want to paint, no matter how long it takes, and then go for it. Full force. The inspiration to capture that place and moment takes over and the painting gets painted, always in the nick of time.
getting the block in for the painting as a tractor goes byThat’s exactly what I did at this past Sunday’s competition in Arsoli, a town in the hills an hour outside of Rome, Italy.I was a late start, I was looking for my painting. Finally I found it here, on what I later discovered was a rather busy street for a village. Tractors hauling tomatoes and other produce up presumably from gardens down below, passed by every hour or so along with loads of cars.
almost have the whole composition in, and thenthat car parked right THERE!With the sun moving steadily across the sky and working quickly, the painting was coming along. The composition was a little complicated looking up this street into the town and so I had to consider this part more slowly.With the added factor of having to move my easel frequently because of passing cars, I kept telling myself to keep my concentration.After stopping to eat a panino for lunch, I went back to decide what the last steps would need to be to pull the painting together and found that this car had parked right in the part of the painting still left to resolve.No problem! Happens every single day in Rome, I should be a pro at this by now.I just kept walking across to the other side of the street to see what was in front of the car, decidedly leaving it out as a big white spot in the middle of the painting.
I Pani Stesi di Domenica, Arsoli50×40 cm (20×16″)oil on linen©Kelly Medfordavailable hereThe finished painting does have 1 car, so as not to forget and to accurately show that even in this picturesque town there are still modern day things like cars!The title I Pani Stesi di Domenica refers to the clothes hanging on the line on the right of the painting. That was one of the deciding factors in making this painting, those bits of color just brought the it all together.See other recent paintings from Rome and around ItalyJoin me for a painting or sketchbook journaling workshop in Italy