Now that I have done a week of every-day landscape oil paintings, it’s worth noting a few things:

First, I feel really exposed doing this. I’ve never painted like this before in my life, and frankly, I’m not that good at it. There have been a couple of decent paintings this week. But there have also been paintings like yesterday’s. Yikes. However, I’ll keep posting as long as I keep painting them — this is, after all, my “digital open studio”. As tempting as it is to edit out the lousy ones, I just don’t think that would be right. Sorry, friends, you are going to have to watch me fail over and over again.

Failure is a good thing; it means I am taking risks.

This is something I have always wanted to do — paint literal landscapes. Oh, sure, I’ve done the odd sketch or watercolor here and there. But I have never applied a disciplined approach to representational landscape painting, and I don’t think I have really even tried any representational oil painting since college. I’ve always wanted a french easel, and I’ve always wanted to paint en plein air. It’s January, so this is not the time for that. But working alla prima is a refreshing break from the slow layering process of the other paintings I have been making over the past decade.

I have given myself permission to make these paintings. (And yes, it was me and my self-conscious awareness of a persona that made landscape paintings verbotten.) I’m taking these little paintings seriously in the respect that I know I have something to learn here. Like I said in an earlier post, I don’t know where this is headed, but I’ll enjoy the ride.

Oh, and the vocabulary! The words rolling around in my head while I work are like old friends come round for a visit: alla prima, scumble, glaze, impasto.

Until tomorrow’s failure,

Matthew