plein air & studio

Sunny Shop - oil on panel - $95
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Some of my panel paintings begin life as plein air studies.  Often there is something that catches my interest enough to start a little painting but when I get home, and put them up on my shelf to dry, I'm not always enamored.  In the excitement of interpretation I get clumsy (especially when painting straight lines) What I often think looks fine in the field, is pretty lack luster back in the studio. Maybe it's because I get caught up in all the other stuff that is going on outside (birds singing, people passing by, wind, bugs) and I'm not as focused on what I'm creating, tending to just lay down what's in front of me, without really asking myself what could make it sing.
 

This little painting, 'Sunny Shop' came together in the studio for me this afternoon.  Here's (left) how it used to look...an abandoned shop in small town Ontario on a hazy afternoon. That's more or less how it really looked, but as a painting, it wasn't really speaking to me at all.

Maybe I could tell a little story? It would be a fib, it's true, but so what.  The idea of a friendly open flower shop was way more fun than the blah boring empty storefront.