When paintings go wrong – how to rescue a failure

Let me show you how I rescued this Plein air painting from the point of disaster.

I’m on a painting trip (and 25th wedding anniversary holiday) in Annecy in the french Alps. Actually the order should be the other way around – anniversary first!

Yesterday we went out on the bus to a small town called Thônes to sightsee and paint, and my eye was caught by this mountain peak (below).

It may not look much in the photo, but it was more impressive in real life. That’s why cameras are not that good at capturing the sense of space or the emotion of a place. They tend to flatten everything. Better to paint or sketch it…

So I set up my Butterfly Easel and got to work, only disturbed occasionally by passing hikers, the odd dog, and a couple of tractors. That was until the rain set in, necessitating a hasty retreat and a hunt for cover.

Here is what I managed to do onsite and in the time available There are bits I like – the mountain and sky are good, as are the distant dark pine trees. But the foreground is a real mess! I had already painted in the house as well as the barn, while something in the back of my brain was shouting at me not to! That would create two competing centres of interest (the mountain peak, and the buildings). A painting only needs to be about one thing. If it ends up being about two things, then we lose the plot and confuse the viewer.

So the main building was wiped off. But I left the barn. I tried to liven things up by changing the colour of the trees to the autumn oranges that were beginning to appear, but these jarred a bit with the other colours. The lack of strong tonal contrast also annoyed me. I returned home knowing I had half a decent painting (the top half) and a mess to sort out (the bottom half).

The rescue!

I needed a plan. More to the point, I needed a tonal value plan. So I sketched one in my notepad.

I sketched out the basic lines and then used a pencil and a black fineliner to add in mid-tones and darks, trying to feel my way around the painting and create pathways for the viewer. I moved the barn to the right and made it smaller and also raised the eyeline a little. This all looked better, so it was time to go back to the painting, with an idea about how to proceed.

I wiped off the foreground with a rag and water (this is easy with water-mixable oils), and then repainted according to my tonal sketch.

Now there is a clarity to the foreground which was just a jumble before, and the eye is lead into the painting and up to the mountain peak in an S shape (along the road, across to the barn, then up to the peak.

Alpine Peak, Thônes. Oil 8″ X 10″

We’re a million miles away from the original failed painting. But not that far from the original scene. OK, I’ve moved a few things, eliminated a few things (including someone’s home), and adjusted a few things. But that is what painting is all about. We create, not copy. I think I’ve saved it from the bin.

I hope you have found this of interest. Please give it a thumbs up if you have.

#enpleinair #compositioninart #Tonalvalues #learningtopaint #oilpainting #Annecy