Proud to be fickle

Party at the beach

(work in progress Stage 3)

Acrylic on Birch panel

5 x 7 inches

Barbara Muir © 2013
Just reshot the photo, I knew the
colour was not right at all last night.

Part of painting is changing your mind.  This little
painting in progress is a case in point.  She started
out in Nova Scotia.  In fact she was going to be
another lemon, in praise of the fruit that pulled me
through the cold, and to gratify my sense of humour.
But the very day I was going to put the lemon on,
the beach, another artist friend posted a painting
with an unusal perspective and -- a lemon!  The position
of the lemon was so much like what was in my head that
I went back to the drawing board, or the painting
in this case.

Party at the beach

(work in progress Stage 2
starting to flesh in face and dress )

Acrylic on Birch panel

5 x 7 inches

Barbara Muir © 2013

I started painting a portrait of a little girl in a party
dress, with the beach behind her.  But in the night
last night I realized that the beach, and sky, and
perhaps even the ocean were the wrong colours.

Party at the beach

(work in progress Stage 1
drawing and starting the painting )

Acrylic on Birch panel

5 x 7 inches

Barbara Muir © 2013

This is okay, because the girl is Californian -- or
half Californian/half Canadian.  The result?  More
changes are in order.  And that's how most art gets
created.  If we couldn't ever change our minds we'd
stick to the first image we imagined, whether it
worked or not.  But we don't, and that's a good thing.
This baby will go through many more changes tomorrow.

Have an enjoying-the-right-to-change-your-mind day