Working on this large scale has forced me to make some changes to my painting process. I've realized that what looks good up close will not necessarily translate as such from a distance and vice versa. Sometimes it feels as though I'm painting an abstract work because up close all the forms (people, path, clouds, etc) dissolve into patterns of flat shapes and colors. It is only when you take a step back that all the shapes and colors merge together to create a picture. This is a wholly different experience from being hunched over an easel with my face inches from the canvas.
The first few strokes of color in a painting can be frustrating because color can play tricks on you. Color is relative, meaning it will change depending on which color it is placed next to. For example, the brown color of the path looks very orange because of the neutral greys it interacts with. I'll quote one of my painting heroes, Josef Albers, "In visual perception a color is almost never seen as it really is - as it physically is. This fact makes color the most relative medium in art."
Someone got a new haircut.
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