"Tranquility" Finished ... Phew!

After days of torture, I finally, finally finished "Tranquility" in time for today's submission deadline to a competition. I'm still relying on daylight to take my digital photos for submission ... and today ... again, the final day, we lost power in the am due to a wind & rain storm and had intermittent showers all day. A real nail-biter. I'd go out when it wasn't raining. Take photos. Edit them. Decide something was still amiss. Change something on the painting. Take photos again. Repeat. Repeat. So you know, I did the same thing yesterday. And the day before (instead of attending the open life session and open studio hours at the Atelier.) And, in the end, I know this version is not all that different than the version from three days ago. I'm happy with it in the end, but wouldn't you think there was a shorter route to getting there?

Creating art is a humbling experience. Sometimes, anyway.

Keep your fingers crossed for me, please.

"Tranquility", oil on linen, 30"h x 24"w, copyright Jill Banks 2010.

Web: www.jillbanks.com
Blog: jillbanks.blogspot.com
Email: jillbanks1@aol.com
Phone: 703.403.7435

"Tranquility" Painting Down to Final Touches

For the last two days, I've been putting in the final touches for my painting "Tranquility" that I plan on entering into an upcoming competition. Note, I haven't signed it yet ... but I think I'm apt to. Just taking a little, easel-removed objective look. Yesterday was the painting marathon. This morning I took the painting outside to check for any color troubles that aren't apparent in the studio. It's amazing what natural light will reveal. I corrected those. The only thing I currently think I may have left to do is to harden up an edge or two and add a couple of subtle variations. We'll see.

When I stepped up to my easel yesterday, I was totally prepared. I knew exactly what I had to do. One of my students in my Tuesday class asked me what I planned to do to finish the painting ... and I went through a checklist of what I knew it still needed. Even though I had analyzed the painting and thought this through, verbalizing the work to be done on Tuesday really kept me moving yesterday when I had the paintbrush in my hand.

So, today I worked on minor modifications. Plus, I ordered and have been reading an ebook, "Exposing Yourself" by Jason Smith about photographing my own work. (You can order the ebook at www.exposingyourself.net.) I have almost all of the knowledge and equipment I need since I've been photographing my work for this blog and for other applications for quite a while. But, there's a big gap between having "almost all" and "all" the knowledge I need. This ebook has already helped bridge part of that gap. Thanks, Jason. What's nice about it is how simply Jason explains the technology -- a must for me. The price is $19.95 -- then you download and print.

I am going to follow the suggestions and work toward creating the highest quality images I can. There will still be times when I hire professionals (Greg Staley, Carolyn Koslow), but for the most part, I would like to do this myself. Let's see how it goes.

"Tranquility" almost done, oil on linen, 30"h x 24"w, copyright Jill Banks 2010.

Web: www.jillbanks.com
Blog: jillbanks.blogspot.com
Email: jillbanks1@aol.com
Phone: 703.403.7435