River Sunset in its Finished Stage

 Of course, I should have pushed and finished it the other day. Today, I struggled to get the finishing touches. The big tree on the right gave me the most problems. I so struggled with the leaves and trying to come up with colors that would show up. The original photo is dark, and I want the painting to be bright … but still real.

I’m still finding out how to work sitting on the wheelie stool and finding a comfortable spot for my feet. The bottom of the stand-up easel hurts my instep.

I worked on the water, the pile of rocks in the middle of the river (well, what I made a pile of rocks), foreground rocks, and bushes. I added blue to the foreground rocks and more vegetation between some of the rocks for pops of color. I was reaching the point where every mark made it look worse.

This is the point where I have to say, “Enough,” and consider it done. My signature came out bigger than I normally do. From a distance, this looks amazing! And, of course, it looks much better in person than the photo shows.

And once again, a huge thank you to Megan Fowler for her reference photo.