Paintings in Progress

This is kind of a funny story looking back at it now. For the most part I like to choose my subjects for my paintings. My wife always says Jose does what Jose wants to do and when he wants to do it. Which brings me to this story.

My wife and I have always wanted to finish an area on our back patio. Well, the visit of my sister-in-law and her husband during the holidays motivated us to finally do something about it. Family visits always have a way of pushing one to finish a long overdue project. I only had three days to finish two 4'x2' vertical paintings and have them hung up by the time our guests showed which was supposed to be on the fourth day.

Not being the type of artist that likes to paint for decor purposes, this was that type of project commissioned to me by my lovely wife Terry. Terry wanted the paintings to tie in with our backyard which is a beautiful lush garden that is hard to describe without one actually seeing it to appreciate it. It was also to match with the blue color theme that she had going in this area; hence the decor part.

The paintings are a project continuation from the article I posted earlier about blending a background. Keep in mind I had three days alloted and I usually do not paint for more than three hours per session; 4 hrs tops. I had plenty of time for the scene in my mind. I painted the background one evening. The next day I started the painting in the afternoon. I figured I would finish on the third day if I worked all day. Not!

As I was painting on the last day alloted and I think I was 3/4 of the way done with the painting, the phone rings. Guess who is showing in about an hour. You see our guests decided to drive through and show up a day earlier than scheduled and surprise us. Ahhhh! But I'm not finished! The panic fills the air. Working quickly, I slap some paint here and there, and then the edges because it is a gallery wrap canvas and would look silly if the paint did not continue on the sides.

I told my wife I would need to finish it at a later date and proceeded to hang the paintings. As we were hanging the paintings the edges where still wet enough to come off on my hands as we hung them. I was working in acrylics as usual so you can imagine how quickly I took them off my wall easel. It was a stressful time but looking back, it seems kind of funny now. I still have hours left to finish the paintings because the paintings are still missing more foliage, highlights and blue tinted birds of paradise flowers to match the blue theme. So in essence the patio project I have procrastinated on for some time now is still not completely finished. Well, it's back to the studio for final brush strokes. Now let's paint!