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Today I'd like to share with you a "big oops" that taught me a lesson or two.

A year or more ago, I decided I wanted to go Big.  Well bigger than my usual paintings, anyway.  So I had some sanded pastel paper dry mounted ($$) to a piece of foam core for this little experiment.  I wanted to try my hand at a seascape because I like the big vistas - I love being able to see a distant horizon.  Well, I messed around and messed around with it, never quite happy, not knowing what I needed to do to make it interesting or "pop" as they say.  After layer upon layer of pastel washed down with Turpenoid, I finally put it to rest for awhile thinking maybe someday I'll know more of what I need to know to finish.  It was such a nice big piece of paper mounted to board, I didn't have the heart to toss it out.

This year a friend of mine commissioned me to do a seascape for her condo in Naples, Florida.  I've spent a lot of vacations looking at the ocean and photographing the ocean but never have I painted the ocean on location.  So I felt I needed to do some practice pieces.

I pulled out the old board which had been washed down with Turpenoid to a pretty blue and sprayed with fixative for storage, but not much else going on with it.  I began working on it again but still struggled to make it something more than turquoise water, yellow orange sunrise, blue sky with clouds.  Boring!!!

As it turned out, one day I stepped into my studio and found the pastel laying face down on the floor!  It had fallen off the easel.  No big deal, it wasn't even close to finished.  However, because it was mounted on foam core and had apparently hit something sharp on the way down.  It was dented.  Seriously dented with no hope of repair or ever becoming something I could sell.  Lesson learned - never mount on foam core, it's way too soft and easily damaged.

Now I have a half-finished painting that is truly practice only.  So I began to have fun!!!!  I put away my reference photo and just had at it, laying on bold strokes of color, thinking about balance, color harmony, temperature, and composition - things we artists are supposed to think about but sometimes don't when we're being slaves to the photo.

Voila!  I love it!  It's going on my wall (I don't particularly care if it's dented!)