Fishing the rapids II

Fishing the Rapids 

Acrylic 18" x 24"

Sometimes an idea for a painting kicks around in my head for awhile.  Then it reaches a point where I have to get it out and onto canvas or paper and occasionally in the form of notes or poems.  More often than not I feel like a passenger on that ride rather than the pilot.

In this case, the version of the picture to the left was my first pass.  I've talked before about how I will often get a painting to a point of partial completion and simply set it aside for awhile.  There was always something about this painting that hadn't set quite right with me.  Despite the fact that family, friends, and even an impartial critic who selected the painting for a juried show liked the painting as it was.

Some of the differences between the two are do doubt because of different lighting.  While I made small additions and corrections throughout much of the picture - a small brush stroke and color adjustment here and there. the main adjustment was to the color of the large tree on the far bank (left bank) and the small trees in the left foreground.

Those color adjustments, adding primary complementary shades to the rocks and the muting of colors on the far bank really helped bring out the reflections of the sky in the water.  Other than covering my old signature and adding the new, I didn't even alter the water.  I was quite happy with how this turned out.  I was able to add contrast and some darker colors - while turning an area of the painting that had seemed flat and lifeless into one of interest that still supported the whole picture.

I'm now finding more pleasure in making small adjustments in color, shape, and form, to pictures that in the past I was quite content to just leave unfinished.  It's a different part of the creative process but one that I continue to grow in appreciation for daily.

The working process behind the original version of this painting can be found elsewhere in this blog.

https://robertkahlerlandscapepaintings.blogspot.com/2017/02/fishing-rapids.html

Now I can let it go and move onto something completely different.