This my entry for Paint Party Friday, a weekly display from about 85 artists from all over the globe. The site is hosted by Kristin and Eva, Thank you, Ladies!
My painting today has undergone many changes. I first painted it about 4 years ago. I had all cornstalks in the background, and a very dark black shadow under the crow and all strokes on the pumpkin going one way, and a stem bottom showing on the pumpkin towards the right side of the canvas. On Monday of this week Susan Ploughe who is one of the instructors at Mainstreet Art Center (where I go to paint with my artists friends a couple of times a week) asked us to all bring in a couple of our "duds", the paintings that did not work out as planned. So I took my crow and pumpkin. It was predominately orange and yellow over the whole painting, the pumpkin, the ground, the background of cornstalks. There was some green in the leaves and some of the cornstalks, but otherwise all orange & yellow! Susan had a sneaky idea up her sleeve! She had us trade our paintings with someone else and we were each to work on the other person's painting, so that the painting would be looked at with a new perspective. Susan told us that if we didn't like what the other person did with our painting we could just wipe it off with turp, since all our paintings were dry long ago. Well, I worked on Corrine's Napa Valley painting and she worked on my crow. Corrine merged all the cornstalks together with some different background colors that were impressionistic, and the painting was so much better, but it was still oranges, yellows and greens. After I went home, I thought about it and decided that blue might be good with the orange, since they are compliments. So today I changed the shape of the pumpkin, changed the direction of the strokes on the pumpkin, lightened the really dark shadow, as suggested by Ann Feldman, added many different colors to the leaves, made the broken piece of pumpkin shell the right value, and got rid of all the orange in the background with sky blue. Oh, what a relief it is! ( I am singing this part!) LOL!
11"H x 14"W Original Oil on Stretched Canvas
I have a sweet spot for crows! :)
ReplyDeleteSimply beautiful...love that shadow under the crow too, what a great collaboration! HPPF!
ReplyDeleteblue and orange is my go to fix it combo... and that background is making your work sing... loved reading about how it came to be... nice to know you don't just whip up perfect every time...xx
ReplyDeleteBlue is really making the highlights in the pumpkin pop and I like how I had to look deep in the shadow to see his opportunity Happy PPF!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great experiment, I've been hearing about this kind of thing lately; artists collaborating, finishing each other's pieces and such... one has to have an open mind, but so cool to get another person's perspective hands on!
ReplyDeleteIt's beautiful, love the colors and the texture of the background!
Wow, love the colors and particularly like the shadow under the crow. You have a vibrant new painting! Happy PPF
ReplyDeleteThis is a beautiful painting! Would've liked to see the "before"-picture too! The blue really makes the orange pop. Great work. And such a fantastic idea to let 2 artists work on eachother's painting!
ReplyDeleteAmazing what a different set of eyes can do, isn't it? I love the finished painting.
ReplyDeleteGloria this is fabulous!! It's so real and rich looking!! Brilliant idea to have people exchange paintings!! New perspective is always good!!
ReplyDeleteHugs Giggles
Amazing proces between friends. xox
ReplyDeleteThis is so rich! The oranges with the blue is magnificent! Happy PPF!
ReplyDeleteThis is a gorgeous piece! The colors intense and alive, beautiful!
ReplyDeletetotally wonderful artwork, the colourings are very beautiful. Happy PPF, Annette x
ReplyDeleteI love your colors in this painting. The blue against the orange is just perfect. Lovely work. Happy PPF
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness this is gorgeous! The colors are so luscious and I love the background texture. LOVE! xoxo
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful "save", Gloria! The blue is the perfect color for the background.
ReplyDeleteThis is beautiful and a real lesson in not despairing over 'duds'!
ReplyDeleteSuch a wonderful process, I love crows, this is such a beautiful Autumn piece.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting way to get fresh eyes on a painting. I think the blue is working great here for the background.
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing experiment. I would be so scared to have someone work on one of my paintings, but it obviously really helped you shift your perspective. I think that blue background is just perfect. The crow really stands out. Happy PPF!
ReplyDeletewhat a great way to see things in a different light. i really like the blue with the orange. and you've captured the stance of the crow perfectly!
ReplyDeleteCant go wrong following the color wheel. Lovely painting. HPPF
ReplyDeleteI really like it! And interesting process. It would be neat to try...
ReplyDeleteYou were right to add a blue backgrond, looks great with specks of orange showing through which give a rustic feel to the painting, I think:)
ReplyDeleteThe painting is beautiful. How wonderful to have a place to go during the week to share what you love to do. Your colors are so vibrant.
ReplyDeleteThis is gorgeous! I especially love the way the leaves are done--defined, yet such lovely loose strokes--
ReplyDeleteI'm having a giveaway over at Art in the Garage to celebrate my 1000th post--hope you can stop by and leave a comment!
Wow! This is one of my favorite paintings of yours thus far, Gloria. I love the original composition and the warm colors.
ReplyDeletethis is so beautiful! Gotta love that crow and his shadow-fantastic! Happy PPF!
ReplyDeleteit turned out wonderful! I love it!
ReplyDeleteOh wow, I love it! I really, really love it. The colors "pop!"
ReplyDeleteI also have a sweet spot for crows. The crows are prefect, I love how it 'pops', lovely work.
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