How I start a Painting; A Painting in Progress

'The Sound of the Waterfall Woke Me,' acrylic on canvas, 80 x 60 - STAGE ONE.

One of my ongoing themes is Waterfalls. I am painting this theme using several processes and with a focus on colour.  I have always liked tall vertical canvas shapes (as well as long horizontals) which allow you to explore the possibilities of conveying a sense of movement through colour and shapes. With this particular canvas I began with the 'drips' of water running down the canvas and a neutral, dark brown background. I built shapes in to the rivulets all the time thinking about sounds of water and water falling across rocks. 

My composition was also based on the unexpected sight of the waterfalls running down the mountains in Beigou, China, when I arrived sleepily early one morning in August 2016. I set myself a task: to combine verticals, shapes, movement and mark making with the starting point of this memory.

STAGE TWO

The painting, (stage two above) threw up lots of questions about how to accommodate these disparate shapes and colours into an image with both space and movement. I have to think about what kind of space I want and where my priorities lie; do I want abstraction and how much, or am I going to include landscape forms? I realised as I painted today that I want a layering of abstraction and calligraphy with a suggestion of place, though place is not so important as the image working correctly in its own terms. I had to add some yellow-green at the top, to open out the top of the canvas and give an illusion of 'sky,' and spatially it does help. I also set back some of the calligraphic marks, erased some, and simplified some of the edges of the painting. However, it is still bothering me and will need quite a bit more work to sort both the space and the composition which I feel does not yet gel. Parts may need lightening or erasing; I may need to take out parts I like in order to create that marriage of colour, calligraphy and abstraction. 

Some parts in stage one may even need to be re-established in stage two - which is why it is good to have photos of previous stages! (I'm thinking especially of the crimson colour on the middle right side of the painting which seems to be necessary now.)

Questions which are on my mind: how far do I want to flatten the space and simplify certain abstract elements? Do I need to darken or lighten colours? Do I need to focus so much on the illustrational, rock-like elements or are they just holding up the composition? (Though some darks seem to be needed). Could I express the idea of the waterfall in a simpler way?

I chose to post a painting that I'm having problems with because often we tend to see only finished work which makes the artist's job looks as if there was no wrestling with the image when the truth is that no artist finds resolution easy. Also, I wanted to show how a painting at a difficult stage with suggestions of how it might proceed. Many of my artist friends also take their paintings through several stages and my best work often comes out of the 'mess' and doubts.  

To be continued!