Swithering Between Nature and Imagination

Swithering between the colours of nature and those of my imagination at the moment. The last snow is melting and spring colours are on their way back, my daffodils are shaking off the snow and colour is popping up all over the garden. I started this new painting but then the deadly swither set in! 

My reference photo is in colour and basically green and creamy whites, unfortunately this didn’t really wash with my desire for lilacs and purple. Time for a helping hand, a different filter ….. black and white. The swither helper.

My trusty old ipad, I've kept it after an upgrade extra for my studio (it doesn’t matter if it gets covered in pastel dust, clarty fingerprints or fixative spray. Black and white filters are great for a couple of things when painting; checking composition ( a bit like a Notan), checking values (the distribution of lights darks and mid tones) and black and white takes you immediately out of the natural colours, allowing you to use your imagination more easily and not being distracted by local colour. 

Here I haven’t changed my reference permanently but just temporarily applied the b/w filter. Will it help? That remains to be seen because my painting is at the famous ''ugly stage'', the swither then changes from use of colour to bin it or not! 

To bin or not to bin, that is the question…… I'm finding my lilacs and purples a bit flat, sigh! And I was so sure it was going to be glorious, now I'm not so sure, nature probably does know what it’s doing. 

One other tip for the black and white filter, when you've finished painting check your values once more by using the filter on your painting, it’s very often the distribution of those values that makes an interesting finished piece!