Journey Back into Plein Air: The Rewards of Analysis!

The weather outside was windy and rainy--not very warm. Not that I mind painting in the rain--OK-I mind it a little bit--but I decided that I was going to do some serious critiquing of a plein air study that has been bugging me ever since I painted it at Smith Park.

The painting done on a sunny day at Smith Park is this one.

I wasn't pleased with this one at all. Plenty of compliments were given while I was painting it, but the colors were wrong and the composition--quite simply stunk!! There is nothing there to keep the viewer interested--except maybe the bad colors!

So I thought about it and decided I'd try it again...The second result was slightly better--as I focused more on my colors and trying to duplicate the scene from memory.
Here's the result of the second attempt.

The composition still stunk! The colors were slightly better--but everything is just too busy...I even tried to add interest on this one by taking the second little piece of land and making another piece of land come off of it--like a fork in the road. Well, the result shown below was a failure--muddy area and it didn't add any interest!

So that brings us to what I did today. I sat down with the two studies in front of me. I asked myself again..."What made me want to paint this when I was out at the site?" I looked at the back of the studies, then at the center where the little land mass sticks out. Was that it? Then I looked at the front of the painting and it hit me. Originally when I was going to paint the front area, where the two trees and the fallen log met the pond. Was that it? I closed my eyes and meditate on that area--standing there at the site I painted it and saw it again. Somehow I got sidetracked into painting the whole scene. Here's the area I'm talking about:

Hmmm....looks good..might work. So I sketched it out on a 9X12 inch canvas board (all the studies were done 9X12 as well).

Laid in the shadow areas--

Stepped back, sat down and asked myself--does it work? Is it a good composition? Can I generate enough interest to keep the viewer in the painting? I didn't hate it and it actually was appealing to me. So I laid in some shadow colors and light colors.

Now I really began to like this. I spent only two hours painting this painting. If I include the analysis it was an afternoon well spent. The finished painting is below and is evidence that a good critique can save almost any plein air study that fails you in the field.