Sometimes I forget how long it takes just to cover such a large canvas with paint, let alone getting it to look right! Today I was hoping to finish the rocks and grass. I think that I accomplished a good amount of painting, but the sheer size and amount of rocks made it impossible to finish up that section. On the bottom of the image I’ve included a little of the ugly rocks. They won’t be ugly forever, but at the moment…! This painting is quite a ways from being finished. There are all sorts of little places that need touching up. The grass however, is growing on me. I like the velvety glowing greenness of it.
One thing that I’m consistently surprised by is The Ugly Phase. There is always an Ugly Phase, which I think I encounter so reliably because of my painting style. I layer acrylics – usually an underpainting followed by a medium ground with darks and lights on top- and the medium ground is always a little disturbing for me. It just looks bad! Sometimes the underpainting looks beautiful and I have a hard time painting over it, but the medium ground is hardly ever pretty. It can be really difficult to keep slogging through the ugly phase, but it’s always rewarding when things finally start looking right again. Sometimes I wonder if I should be paying more attention. Is there something I could do to avoid The Ugly Phase altogether? Only time will tell.