Summer Pub Nights - Merchant

Summer Pub Nights - Merchant
oil on canvas 14" x 18"

I tweaked this painting recently.  Took out the foreground figures, aligned the barrels and solidified the tree shapes. I'm much happier with it now. 
It's funny how the idea can get lost in the details you put in...for example what moved me to paint this scene was "the atmosphere of celebration a weekend summer evening brings combined with our historic architecture".  I joyfully painted what i thought was my original idea; added to the merriment by painting in a young duo in front of the fence heading into the entrance, under the limbs of an extremely(for me) fussily described tree.  After I was done I was mildly satisfied, and posted it on the blog(to lots of nice comments i might add!)...but as it sat on the wall of my studio for  a month, i viewed it knowing that it was not saying what i had intended...at least not in the way that i had intended...the idea was getting lost in the details!   It now seemed to be about the young couples choice of entering the establishment and not about the atmosphere.  It took me a month to realize that was the core of the unsatisfactory feeling I was getting from the painting.  Boy o boy... if there is one thing I've learned it's always worth it to take a risk in an effort to get the painting to voice my intentions...otherwise there seems (to me)no point in painting it.