"Durant Nature Trail, Raleigh, NC"
30"x24" oil on canvas painted by Cindy Mott McGarry
"You are where your attention takes you."
-Indian seer
When beginning a painting, the finished piece of work can seem almost unreachable. The "Fun" part of a painting (at least for me) finally comes after the basic composition, major shapes, angles, and under paintings have all been laid down. Many early shape and color plans in a multiple layered painting may change dramatically before feeling comfortable moving forward to the next step/layer/color ... This is why it helps tremendously to be very aware of where your attention is taking you!
With certain styles of oil painting it is easy to get way ahead of yourself by laying in too many light colors first. The rich, thin, deep, dark colors need to be laid down on the canvas first for an impressionistic style of painting in order to make the following layers of medium and light colors much more striking and dimensional. When laying in the darks it is quite helpful to imagine what they will look like underneath all those alluring orange, pink, yellow, and white strokes of light. If your attention stays on creating that dark vibrancy of the under painting realm first, then the depth of the finished piece will appear much more alive!
A big reward for using your attention properly will be when you are finally free to swing that brush or use your fingers to get "Splashy, Sprinkly, and Loose" with those final layers of colorful light - and you can see where your attention has taken you!
Happy painting!
Below is an early darks under painting for the above Durant Nature Trail painting.
