Vista near St. Saturnin (14" x 18")
Challenge #3: Interpreting the Scene
When I paint from photographs I do not slavishly copy the image. I crop, eliminate, add, stylize, and exaggerate – shapes, colours, lines and motifs, keeping in mind my memories about the place. Faced, literally, with a real landscape, I found it challenging to decide how to paint it, how to best interpret it using my personal visual vocabulary. At first I tried to paint what I saw in a fairly exact manner, but that felt too weird – so I eventually reverted to my normal studio interpretive approach (as much as possible), had more fun painting and was happier with the results.
the real view
