The painting on the other side of this sheet is very accurate and very boring. When that happens, and I've got nothing to lose, I sometimes flip the paper over and just paint.......No drawing, just a big wide brush full of paint. The initial wash carves out a white path and establishes a "mother color", as Frank Webb calls it. Then I look for ways to highlight those areas by using complementary colors or by surrounding it first with midtones and then darks for contrasts, expanding outward.
The underpainting is fairly abstract with little regard for where the subject matter is going to be placed. I did save the whites in the steeple, but most of the rest of the white areas are just a pathway through the middle of the painting. I keep the calligraphy and what little texture there is also around the middle. The periphery is lacking in detail, texture and calligraphy so as not to draw attention to the edges of the paper.
I've said it before....a painting is not a photograph. I wanted the feeling of a busy country corner, not a portrait of some buildings. There are just enough recognizable landmarks in this painting to let the viewer know that they are on Boothbay Common, in the great state of Maine on a happy, sunny day.
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