Evolving "Stillness"

More than once I have seen a picture of myself like ten years ago and say to myself "wow, I was kinda good back then, not so fat and old as I thought at the time."  Then there is my work for which the opposite chronological order is underway.  For instance, back in 2011, I did this painting entitling it "Stillness."

It was done in the summertime as a diptych when the weather was so still and hot, August I think, and all I could do was paint the heat that I felt.  I was happy with the work and it didn't sell so I donated the smaller one to a fundraiser or our art club.

Time marches on, I decide to work on the remaining part of the piece and hang it at Patris' Midtown Gallery in 2012 and so here is how it changed.

I think I bettered it in that the colors aren't so stark and contrasting, I incorporated other values and gave it a different feel at the ground and gave it some depth with the sky.  I brought it home after a couple months at the gallery, hung it in the house and kept an eye on it.  I'm still thinking this piece is just not telling a good enough story, it's hot but now cool ground, sky goes back but so what??? 

So again, recently I decided to work on it taking away the tacky ground of leaves and rocks and whatever I thought I was doing so artistically last year.

Now I have changed the angle of our view.  We are looking up into the tree.  I like the changes of color from the shaded part to the part of the tree that is in the sun, it's got some really light leaves in front and in the intense sun.  It also has become abstract in that it doesn't have to be a tree to the viewer giving the sense of garden, of end of summer fun, or Fall.  I like it so much more now, somehow it's more me giving the viewer the opportunity to interpret the story of color and texture.  Maybe it's done now?  I haven't signed it yet but I will, I will.