Another Look at :"Mincer's On the Corner" at U.VA.

During the last four months I've been working on one specific painting. Most times I put in but two and a half hours per session, but this changed when I was getting towards the completion of this painting. I work on what my painter friends called a 'marathon' session of work. Yesterday I put in ten hours straight with only one brief break. The subject is something I have painted before but each time it comes out a little bit better. This time was no different, I knew what I was faced with and I decided to take it on. I began by doing some photos of the scene: I took photos from many different angles since setting up and painting on location was very difficult. I've tried it in the past. In order to get the optimum view I had to set up at the bottom of a lob-lolly pine tree among its branches. As one might imagine it wasn't a very pleasant atmosphere in which to paint. This time I opted for a photograph shown on my laptop. I worked and reworked the faces in this painting. Sometimes dismayed that I had covered up some good painting only to end up with a disaster as a result. I kept painting though and sometimes painting is giving oneself a troublesome problem only to work it out with one's brushwork. That I think has become the nature of art for me. Often my first efforts are the ones I ought to settle for but I seem to not realize this and forge onward covering up what I started with only to struggle to get something nearly as good in the endpoint of painting. For what its worth, this canvas is a commission. A buyer wanted me to paint "Mincer's" all over again. I was reluctant but I gave in, because it still seemed like a challenge to do it, and it was but I am still glad I put the time into doing it as best I could. Even with the messing up sometimes I think I worked it out to be a rather decent painting of the U.Va. Corner landmark store.