Creative License

I have started another painting.  It's a rather ambitious undertaking for me because it is a photo from the early '60s, --a rural scene from the community of Skulton where we lived at that time.  The picture was taken from the pasture field below our home, a viewpoint which I seldom saw because I didn't very often go down below the property where our house stood.  My husband took this picture and it was developed as a slide.  A couple of years ago, I had the slide printed as a photo. 

The scene really appeals to me, being a panoramic view of the little community which was once home to our family.  I know there is great challenge to painting this picture as it appears in the photo, but then, I have the photo.  I don't have to reproduce it.  I want something of my own creation to remind me of this time so long ago.  I can leave things out, or put things in, as I want.  There is a little red pickup truck in the photo.  I plan to leave it out of the painting, although I wish I could put it in.  I don't think I can get the perspective right and I think the scene will be fine without the truck, though I do love the little splash of red in the photo.

William Alexander, the painter and teacher, talked much about creating your own world and putting the tree or the cloud or the rock where you, the artist, want to put it.  I'm going to use some of that creativity with this painting.  It's fun!

Posted by: NJ on 3/12/2006 4:04:11 PM , 4 comments