Shakesperience in Library Park

I finally had a free weekend to finish this painting. Shakesperience Productions during their first summer performance in Library Park--A Midsummer Night's Dream, way back in July of 2005. I was there with my sister and her baby, who was all of three months old, making her the youngest audience member. They're not in the painting, since they were sitting next to me.

As always, it looks much better in real life (the winter sun doesn't seem to be as good for photographing paintings on my porch as the summer sun), and there are areas that I think look fantastic, and areas that I am not pleased with (but it's time to move on to a new painting).

I made a lot of modifications to the original photograph, removing a number of items that were too distracting or that muddied the composition, and relocating the girl sitting the on the ground so that she was no longer in the center blocking the view. I also changed the color of her shirt from a toxic Irish green to a tan color that harmonized better with the rest of the painting.

The most important element in executing this painting were the brushes. I've been using smaller and smaller brushes. It's the only way to get fine details like fingers and for creating areas of mottled color. I managed to break one of my favorite brushes on Saturday. I was cleaning up and had just finished washing the brushes, then shook them to dry faster and smashed the one brush against the counter, breaking off the brush end. I was SO dismayed! I strapped the brush back onto the stick with a rubber band, so it's still usable, but if I press in the wrong direction, it wobbles.

Next up: a large painting of the Lux Clock on the Green!