Carnival No.2 original painting, Inspired Plein Air

After much work here is the 2nd Carnival painting, this is 18" x 24" and surely inspired plein air. I came this close _ to taking a pair of scissors to it. The day before yesterday I has said that's it I'm done and walked away.

and then in a sudden fury of palette knife hours that tumbled by I finished the piece into something that makes sense visually for me. I was trying to explain to my husband that I won't know it until I see it, that it's a visual thing and for many days this piece was just plain ugly and grated on my soul. I hated whenever he would look or whenever I would look at it.

Now I can present the piece satisfied visually and in my heart. With every piece I paint I learn more about myself as an artist and am slowly throwing off the layers of expectations. I was convinced this piece would be a failure, but one that I would learn from.

Now instead I learned that nothing beats working outside on site. And that when I need to I can recreate the emotions and memories. That's what I had to do here. Working from small 4 x 6 photos limited me to one single moment in time, it was when I let go of the photo reference, tossed them aside and relied on my emotions and memories that I was able to paint.

~Rebecca
the pics are clickable for larger views
18" x 24"
Original signed painting on gallery wrap canvas

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Rebecca Grantham