Progress of a Painting

almost initial sketch

next phase but not done yet

Some progress shots of an oil painting I'm working on. Here I used a cut-out piece of pre-primed canvas. 

I paint mostly from my own photo references and sketches. Recently, as I embarked on a few plein-air studies, I noticed the pitfalls of painting from a photo as well as from life. 

In the full concentration of rendering what's in front of me, mixing paint, comparing values and colors, I get too literal with what I see. I then must envision solutions to make the painting "work". This imagining requires time (how about 8 hours of sleep? Don't you wish, Mom..) and some added medium to the paint for more layers. Yes and re-orienting your brain :-) All this is not easy but fun and liberating- and it feels exactly like painting an abstract image.