What You See ….. Is What You Get?

What you see is what you get, or isn’t it? 

I was reading in an artist's forum the other day about use of local colour and it got me thinking about my latest piece on the easel, which started off completely with the use of local colour. 

Local colour as a concept is basically ''what you see, is what you get'', you paint the colours that you see exactly as they are from your reference or from your motif when painting plein air. I'm working from a reference and started using local colour, now I've exorcised my ''green demons'', I'm not afraid to use them and as the theme of this painting is hideaways, I like that verdant foliage feel but as often with using ''local'' colour, I'm afraid that the darks will be boring and the highlights too! This dilemma is nothing new, but I thought I'd made my decision here and now I'm swithering/dithering. You can see my indecisiveness in those little pops of turquoise that are creeping in; local colour or a bit of pop? Too dull because I like the feeling of watching from the shadows, or throw on some rich purples, blues and the kitchen sink and have done with it, and that is where I stand; stand, sit, sigh, wring my hands, take another peek, dither even more and still don’t get on with it. 

I've made prevarication into an art form and I don’t know why, get on with it; worst case scenario, the bin!