Day 18: Down a Dirt Road, Zellwood

Day 18: Down a Dirt Road, Zellwood

This morning I was driving and saw this place out of the corner of my eye. We finished up work early today, so I headed straight there. Until now I haven’t really painted the flatness that is Florida, so today is a first little glimpse of it. This place is an industrial wasteland (complete with bad smell!) but was beautiful to me. It’s actually difficult to find these wide stretches of open spaces even though Florida is so flat. I guess there are cow pastures, but this was different, it stretched as far as the eye could see.Painting while looking into the late afternoon sunlight, the painting looked different and more colorful out there. Unequipped with either an umbrella, hat or sunglasses, the painting became a little dull and hazy when I brought it inside this evening. Next time I’ll be prepared!Today was a good day. I wasn’t stressed and so was able to just be in this spot looking and painting. I was thinking that the great opportunity of painting every day is that the whole range of emotions gets to be expressed: boredom, excitement, frustration, freneticness and so on. I’m not sure why, but in my opinion my landscapes are not as strong as my interiors and still lives. I like the haze and the sense of space going back in this painting, I think that in looking at it now all it needed was a little more work, which I didn’t see at the time. I really want to make moving landscapes, to be able to paint that feeling of awe that I have when I’m out there, so I’m going to keep going with working on landscape.Just one last thing..I got so many responses from yesterday’s post, all of them were interesting and thought provoking. I want to say thank you for taking the time to write to me, I know you’re busy and it’s so cool that you’re riding down this road with me, you’re awesome! The dialogue is adding so much to me and my work daily, creating all kinds of new opportunities or things to think about when painting. You’re really helping me grow by leaps and bounds! To buy or view paintings from the 100 day painting project, follow this link: www.kellymedford.com/works. All paintings are 6×8” and cost $100 (+15 shipping) and can be bought directly from my website.Please feel free to share this project with friends, family and strangers. You can subscribe to receive the daily newsletter here http://kellyaskey.fineartstudioonline.com/email-newsletter or you can follow the project on the blog website at www.kellymedford.blogspot.com