Revisiting a Painting- the Sunday Post

This past week I got to work painting in my studio.
I had posted before about how I do take a break from time to time, and get back to painting by setting up a still life, or simple florals, and am inspired by working from life.

I did start a few brand new pieces...and also revisited a couple of works that I had started, and then let go . Either I did not like the way that they were going, or I came close to finish, but wasn't happy with the progress, and put them aside.
One such work was " Sedona Summer Cool" pastel, 16x20

It was a piece I had started this past spring. l did get fairly close to completion, but knew I needed to set this one aside for a while. I had glanced at it from time to time, so that I could work on it" in my head". Other projects required my attention, so then I really put it away in my flat file, which meant no looking..
A few weeks ago, I got it back out, and set it up to look at with fresh eyes, as I knew that the work had really good bones.
I unified the sunlit areas of the rocks ...as they were too "patchy". I also tied the rocks in to the splash of light on the water , and continued it strongly across to the right. It was what had attracted me to the scene in the first place.
 The particular paper that I worked , Richeson sanded paper, on has an aggressive tooth, but with a surface pattern . This means that there were regular areas of paper that had not been filled in with pigment. In some areas this worked okay, and I didn't mind, but in others I needed to fill the tooth in.
this also made the sun struck sections stand out more.

An important point is that I did not refer to my original photo references when reworking this piece. It could have resulted in producing more detail from the original photo, had I done so. My fresh take on it was motivated by allowing the painting to speak; telling me just what it needed. 

I usually like to work in season...but it had gotten chilly here, so it was nice to think of balmy summer mornings.
So, I was much happier with this painting...enough so that it was photographed and entered in a show which will be in the spring. A perfect subject for that time of year! 

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