Farmers Market #10

Farmers market #10

6x8in oil on canvas board  $125. SOLD

Bright, late afternoon sunshine and the eye catching colors
of  bead strands made this a "must paint" for me
This downtown Santa Cruz market is a place where crafts and produce
mingle side by side. I found it totally captivating.
The enterprising young entrepreneur who owned this bead display
used a pair of crutches to hold the rod the beads hung from.
Each end was set in concrete in coffee cans and it leaned slightly
against the wall. A narrow board of shelving held the ready-made
necklaces. She put herself through school doing this.

Artist Note.
I did an on-spot watercolor of this. See below
Unfortunately I did not get a photo of the woman
because I was too busy painting her. And that led to lots
problems.

I tried to paint  pretty well to the sketch. HA!
What you can do with watercolors you can not always
do with oils. Follow this little journey if you have the time...
I felt longer hair was necessary otherwise the bottom
of the hat is in a tangent with the base of the beads.
The yellow hat got lost against the beads without the
really dark areas shown in the above sketch, but when
I painted the dark areas in oil, I lost the glow and feeling
of the colorful beads glistening in the sun.

Something is not appealing to me. In fact the whole thing
looks pretty awful and did not capture what was in my memory.
It was late afternnon and the color of the sun was golden.
I decided to try for that sunny feel and I changed her shirt to yellow

I am beginning to think this is a wiper. I am not a figure
painter and this market series has me painting them.
I can tell it is not right.so I go looking for a model.
Be nice if I had a hat! But the shoulders are what I need.

Meet the back of Gail. My wonderful gallery owner.
I should have asked her to tilt her head up.
(Nice haircut don't you think?!)
Are you getting the drift of how ridiculous
I can be over a tiny 6x8 painting? I know there
are others out there just as bad as me.
It goes on. I felt the light on the wall behind the beads
was too light for the type of light source so I knocked
the value down.
And the list goes on...and on.
Would you believe that even if I am not satisfied with a painting
I truly love painting and the process
of discovery which goes with it? True!
If you are still here then I thank you for reaching the
end of this longer than usual post.