Painting a tree + kid

While the kid was at preschool today I started an oil painting of a photograph I took of her and a tree in the neighborhood park. I took the photo with the intention of painting it - I was fascinated by the colors and texture of the bark - and of course, V. got in several of the shots. When I reviewed them later, i found that I really liked the composition of one of them. So my tree painting became a tree and kid painting, after all. I paint in sessions - spurts, I guess. It's difficult to do it when the kid is home, so when she is a preschool I paint. Today was Session 1, and hopefully soon, there will be a Session 2.

Raw beginning of Session 1

I like to take photographs of the paintings I do as I go as a way to gain perspective. It looks different in a photograph on the computer screen. This is sometimes good, sometimes bad. It helps me find the adjustments I need to make and also, alas, to know when to stop for the day because it's getting worse, not better.

A little progress

I should have stopped here for the day.

But I went on.

I hung it on my wall where I think V. won't touch it, but where I will see it so that I don't just back burner it and never finish it. I'm already itching to work on it some more, but the kid is home now (and literally on my back as I type this!) so I will have to wait until she is asleep... and hopefully I have the energy to not simply join her in slumberland.