30 Paintings 30 Days 2014 - Day #3

Today was a blah day. Not enough sleep last night combined with a lingering feeling of just general "down-ness" made it a little difficult for me to get into choosing a subject for today's painting.

So I visited the folder I keep in my Dropbox of photos and other paintings for inspiration, and I saw a photo of a tree I liked. I remembered that when I originally put in in the folder I had planned on painting it as a springtime cherry tree.

Needless to say, I was not in a springy mood tonight, so I decided to go with fall colors instead. Hey, at least I did not opt for full-on dreary winter!

The original tree was by itself in a field, but since I had gone with the plain tree last night, I decided to add a few more simple elements to the composition and sketched in the mountains and a little fence to give it just a few more lines to draw the eye.

I briefly considered some buildings off in the distance but decided I was too tired to go there, and Lord only knows what kind of disaster I would have turned them into anyway.

I was prepared to very unhappy with the end result. Goes with the mood I guess. But now it is photographed and up on the shelf where I put all my latest work. Sitting here in my chair and viewing it from across the room, I like it.

From a distance, its hard to see the little flaws that normally drive me nuts. From a distance, it looks like a scene I would like to step into. A tree I would like to sit under on a cool fall day and get lost in a good book.

Sometimes our days and lives are like that, aren't they? When we are all up close and nitpicky, they seem so flawed, and its easy to let our mood take a nosedive. But if we take a few steps back and view them with some literal and figurative distance, sometimes we can see them for just how beautiful they truly are.

Now, I just need to remember that the next time one of these moods hits!

Fall Tree Watercolor On 6x6 Paper