Raging River Bridge No. 1008E, version 2.
Acrylic on canvas. 11" x 14".
Another view of the bridge, standing on the south upstream side, down on the river bed. The water level is very low this time of year, exposing rocks. Some of the rocks were clearly cut and set in place, others are naturally occurring, worn smooth from the action of the water.
On this painting I made a point of putting away all the smaller detail brushes I normally reach for, and started with relatively large, coarse brushes. I had a couple objectives. I want to improve my skill rendering trees and foliage in a more convincing manner, and push to work "looser", making use of directional brush strokes.
While the photo I took looked fine, I found this a difficult composition to work with. The centered bridge immediately dominated the canvas. At one point I had a lot of detail on the bridge mass, but found that created a discord with the rest of the image. It did not make sense to have extreme detail on an object further back. In the end I scrubbed most of it out and let it go soft focus again. I'm afraid I ended up overworking everything, and it lost some spontaneity.
I am pleased with the handling of the trees and foliage. These are looking softer and more impressionistic than previous attempts.
I'm dissapointed with how I handled the rocks in the foreground, but at a loss at what to change.
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