Mision School Bell_archway

Mission School Bell__8 x 6 oil on linen_Available at Act I Gallery, Taos, NM

Well, this was one of those paintings I LOVED doing...so it, to me was a GREAT PAINTING (verb-wise)...as I got away from it for a few hours and then came back to shoot it and make this blog post, I can look at it more objectively as a "noun" painting...now, it's ordinary...to me... As I mentioned once before, there are TWO PAINTINGS every time you paint...one is a VERB, one is a NOUN....The two CAN NOT BE COMPARED! I am a very enthusiastic person, so almost ALL of my "verbs" are great paintings! (Because I LOVE THE PROCESS of painting and teaching painting!)...BUT..., I have to be real careful to sit on them a while before setting them free to the shows and galleries....often times I think a painting is good just because I had fun doing it! I think lots of artists do this. We have to step back from the verb and be very critical as to whether the "noun" painting is worthy to show...While photographing this I noticed that many of my paintings are better to photograph with the sun over my left shoulder, rather than right....for some reason the brush strokes don't catch the glare like they do when I shoot the other way....I will talk more on this tomorrow...if I remember

Mission Bells_8x6 oil on linen

Mission Bells___8 x 8 oil on linen___$190 while it's wet!
I cannot name this mission, because I made up part of it. The photo I painted it from was a nice one I took a few months ago in Arizona. I did not plan the composition well, so I added the doorway below and the doo-dads beside it. I NEEDED to , because there was flat, empty space that killed the composition...the lesson here, for you artists is that, unless you are illustrating the official Mission Book, or working on a conmmission for Mr. and Mrs. Mission, it's more important to create a good composition, than to be ACCURATE with the "likeness"... My favorite part is the light on the tower behind and through the lower bell archways...you probably can't tell that's what it is, but it's the reason I painted this one.