>Remembering Peace in Stages Part 2

>There are stages in painting where the road just seems to branch off in many directions, all with possibly successful conclusions. This can also be a point where the initial motivation can be overcome and lost. This is when it is good to ask yourself, do I stay the course or do I change the painting completely? This is key to painting in a series for me, at this juncture I see the glimmer of the next painting forming in my mind. I almost always stay the course with this current painting and then the next painting will be formed from the glimpses that are born in the stages of this painting. Are you seeing the unending possibilities of painting in a series? And the lure of working this way….

Stage 5 of Remembering Peace
by Cathy Hegman

I am looking at this stage and feeling that there are too many symbols and that they do not actually connect. I will now revisit the motivation for this painting, it is about peace in a way that refers loosely to the symbolism of Medusa and the mystery of head coverings, and most importantly how to tie all of this into a nice design that will resonate my thoughts. I am hoping for success but ready for failure at any point, as it would be naive to feel otherwise. I know the mistakes are part of the process and at this juncture there are many appearing. There are too many parts that are not connecting, but I can see my next move.

Stage 6 Remembering Peace
by
Cathy Hegman

My thoughts here are I need to get some dark values in this painting. I am thinking that the values will give it a punch that has been missing in the earlier stages. I added the hand again…but almost immediately I feel it is wrong, I will leave it and see if I can work with it in the future stages. The darker values almost give it a sinister feel, not the feeling I am looking for, but I do feel it needed higher contrasts in value in the painting. The figure seems a bit too large and looming to me as well, this must be corrected in the next stages as well. I have changed the background hue and leaned it too much to the red side so I will have to keep experimenting with the background in layers until I find the exact hue and texture that will speak to me.

Detail of Remembering Peace
by
Cathy Hegman

Stage 7 Finishing the thoughts and tweaking the design….
This stage shows the tweaking that has happened in the design of the figure, softening of the facial features, and elongating the neck area giving me a softer and cohesive feel for the painting. I also changed the hand and the figure shape itself, I feel this looks more complacent and thoughtful than the earlier stage. This is the detail jpeg of the face and dove; there are changes in both although some are so minor it is almost undetectable. You can compare the stages if you want to do so. These small details are so important and cannot be underestimated in their importance. I hope I am describing the thoughts in this process enough to make it clear and not to appear as if I am just droning on and on.

Final Finish Stage…

I divided the background and covered over the barbed wire found in the earlier stages, this gave me more of the look and feel that I had been seeking. I cleaned up the edges on some of the elements and at this point it is beginning to come together. I changed the hand to a more provocative position and have attached a string that connects the bird and the figure together in yet another way. The string is the metaphor for the line of thought that can help us find and remember the peace in our lives. This is in my mind is the gist of the whole painting and in one line I feel it is finished!
I hope you have stayed with me and are not totally bug eyed and bored with the process. I think it is nice to share the love, deep sorrow, longing ,dissatisfaction and the perseverance and working it out that helps me in my art.

I made a YouTube video of the stages in this painting with background music by J.Hegman, you might enjoy seeing it as well. The link is at the top right section of my blog, or here is the URL for you http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPtp-1jXfho

Thank you for reading my blog and I hope that it helps you in your art journey and that you in turn will share your work with others.

Cathy Hegman
AWS,NWS,MSWS,MOWS,SAA,SW
http://www.cathyhegman.com
http://www.youtube.com/hegman1

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