From time to time, I’ll look at work that hasn’t moved and assess whether I am still happy with it or does it need a little adjustment or is it a “learning opportunity” best retired. If the latter, it is removed from the stretchers and rolled up or horror of horrors deemed beyond help and destroyed. This is a sad time because despite their shortcomings there’s a part of me that went into their making which makes it hard to let go. We have to recognize our mistakes if we are to get better.
Happily that is not the case with this piece. It was a beautiful stunning fall day in Gatineau Park. I loved the brilliant angular light that streaked the shallows in Lac Fortune that day. I tried to depict the warm and calm atmosphere of the place – that fall quiet. There was some dead pines in the scene which just didn’t add to the scene and removing them didn’t detract from the truthfulness of the image. So after humming and hawing many times, I finally decided to remove them and am glad with the result. I hope you think so too.
It is drying now and will be varnished in due course.
Oil, 30×40 on gallery wrap canvas – $1,320
ISTVAN JOBST FINE ART 