When ugliness persists!
I’d been working on this painting (Scottish Landscape, Standing Stone) for a while, coming back to it periodically. I was liking the colours but it simply wouldn’t resolve into something I felt satisfied by. I laboured at it for a whole day and by the end of the day I was beginning to despair. It was too dark, the colours were limited and it was just feeling drab. This is so often the case, this phase when ugliness persists. But I’m learning to embrace this as part of the painting process.
“Sometimes paintings in their ‘ugly phase’ will sit for months before I want to see them again. ”
I put it to one side, thinking I needed a break. Sometimes paintings in their ‘ugly phase’ will sit for months before I want to see them again. But the next morning, I felt clearer, and in a few confident moves, it was finished and delight broke through. What I’d been battling with the day before now took me about 30 minutes and I was done. My tricks? If a painting is looking drab I might add some very pale tones to lift the contrasts again. I often use a glaze (thin transparent paint) on small sections to bring the colours to life again. These were my first simple moves, but in this case my happiest move was the pink line! I just love its joyful audacity and the way it sings against the dark greens and ochres.
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