Rocky Road

I had painted my staircase late last year and decided to go with Benjamin Moore's 'Bavarian Forest'. But before I selected that color, I had bought a ton of samples that were just laying around the studio unused. Didn't want to waste them so thought to try them out on canvas - and what a fabulous way to put them to use in the end! The 'eggshell' finish brought out a wonderful varnished finish and since they're water-based, I could mix them very well with the rest of my acrylics. The consistency was fantastic too (just the way I like it) and SO pigmented. 

Now that I'm done raving about the actual paint, let's talk about how flustered I got with the actual painting. After creating two artworks that I was happy with, this third piece took a long time to settle down. And I'm going to blame all the frustration on the fact that I decided to start the piece with a moody green. 

The initial layer was absolutely fabulous. Most of the time I just want to say its finished right after the first layer. There's a certain 'raw and unfinished' element that is always my absolute favorite stage of a painting. The exposed canvas, the perfect blend between inky and textured gets me each time. But I know that there is far more to come so I keep on going. This time though was super rough. I knew what palette I wanted to go with but there were so many things I adored about the first layer that keeping them was so tough while still deciding on my final composition. I hesitated to layer, held back so many times to add anything and then ended up with something really ugly like this:

As you can see, it looks confused, muddy and plain messy. And not messy or chaotic by intention. It was painful to sit in front of it every day. That's when I had to tell myself to not be afraid of losing the elements that I was holding on to from the previous layer. Ended up softening the bottom area and actually covering the exposed canvas on the left side. And boom! Everything changed instantly. The added contrast, softer surface and pure white did a lot of fixing for me. So much so that it is my current favorite piece! Titled 'The Space Between Us' and here she is