Cut orange on a plate

It's been so long since I've painted consistently. I feel like I'm starting over. Which I guess is new and exciting and all, but it's not so fun to feel like you have lost previous progress. I guess the painting muscle is like any other muscle, and just needs to be worked regularly to keep it in shape (not that mine has ever been in terribly good shape to begin with, ha).

Fruit seems to be the subject matter of choice these days, because I always have it lying around, and it's always pretty to look at.

Looking through my paintings, I've noticed that composition has been a definite weak point of my creations. I think it's because I know with the little paintings I've been doing, that they are really just for practice and to develop my own technique and style. I'm not creating masterpieces here. So I haven't worried terribly much about following the rules of good composition or making anything to be "ooh and ahhh-ed" over. Which is actually quite liberating. I don't feel pressure to make something grand. It's just nice to get my mind off the responsibilities of my every day and get into an artistic zone.

But hey, I figure while I'm practicing, I might as well practice getting a good composition to begin with. So I fussed around with the configuration of these oranges for a while before I finally started painting (even using a cardboard viewfinder I made this evening!), and I'm happier with the way the eye moves around this painting than the other practice paintings I've been churning out lately.

I think one of the difficult things about creating art is that you have this vision in your mind of what you want your creation to be. But it rarely turns out the way you're envisioning (at least, not yet). Sometimes it feels like the completion of each artwork is a failed attempt at meeting an illusionary expectation. Maybe that gets to be less the case as your skills mature and you are better able to predict your own limitations and abilities. But right now, I'm rarely content with the things I create. I think consistency is the key, though. If I don't keep at it, I will forget the things I learned from that last painting I did a couple days ago. But if I get back to the easel within a few days, I'll be ready to try something new and develop new skills.

I got a new light in my studio area too (daylight balanced instead of the warm tungsten I'm used to), which I think is messing with my value perception and color mixing. But I'll give it a few days (or weeks) before I decide whether I like it or not. It seemed that my paintings were turning out cooler than I wanted because I was compensating for the warmth of the light. But this painting is looking quite cool, so I don't know what's going on, ha. I guess I'll just have to try it for a while :)