Day 24: Primitive Baptist Church, 1896

Day 24: Primitive Baptist Church, 1896

Larry stopped to see what I was doing out by the church on the side of the road. This is his family’s church, he grew up going to church here and his grandmother lived across the street. He went home and brought back a watercolor someone did (interestingly enough also a vertical composition, I guess to fit the steeple in) to show some of the transformations that the church has gone through. It’s still heated with a wood stove and someone stole the heating and air conditioning unit last year, so the primitive church remains true to its name. Getting this painting made today was a battle of wills! The sun was directly at my back, shining on the canvas. When I put up an umbrella my whole easel got picked up and turned upside down within a minute flat because the wind was blowing so hard. In the end I had to paint with my back almost to the church. First I would look at the church and then turn away to paint on the canvas. A good memory exercise! The painting was not going well, and after a little bit I was asking myself what I was doing trying to paint this. I stopped to think about it for a minute: stay and try to make it work despite the unfavorable circumstances, or go and find something else to paint. In keeping with the whole nature of the project I decided to stick it out and to make the painting work, and I’m glad for it. I’ve been wanting to paint this church for some time now, and I wasn’t going to be driven away so easy. This is the first painting so far in the project that I really can see making a bigger painting out of and painting the entire church with its surrounding woods. I purposely left the background sketchy, thinking that if I added too much detail that it would just take away from the glaring white of the church. Today I really understood how all of the paintings that I have abandoned in the past because of a lousy start could have turned out with just a little perserverence and patience. In the past I just gave up too easily chalking it up to my lack of ability as a painter. Maybe each painting won’t turn out to be a masterpiece, but it’s worth sticking with something to see what’s in there just waiting to come out.You can buy this painting here http://kellyaskey.fineartstudioonline.com/works/407172 or view and buy other paintings from the project here https://kellymedford.com/collections/25604. All paintings are 6×8″, painted on birch or linen mounted on birch, come unframed and cost $100 (+ shipping).To share this project with a friend they can subscribe to receive the daily email newsletter here https://kellymedford.com/email-newsletter or follow along and comment on the blog site www.kellymedford.blogspot.comThanks for another great day and talk to you tomorrow