NYC Temple Painting

You know, some days painting is really hard.  The day I did this painting was one of them. I probably spent 3-5 hours on it.  I haven't mastered acrylics.   I haven't "mastered" watercolors either, but I'm so comfortable with how to put the watercolor paint on the paper, that I can do lots of things really fast and get a beautiful impressionistic painting in an hour.  I can even do a 9X12 in an hour.  I know how to use the paint and watercolor effect to just make something look pretty.  It's just really easy right now.

I can't do much fast in acrylics.  I just want to be able to whip up some impressionistic beauty really quickly, but I can't.  I have to do a realistic version and develope some of my skills.  I think the problem is that I did a painting that was too big.  I really just wanted to do something fast, in 1-2 hours.  This painting is 9X12 and the buildings can use up so much detail!  I actually kind of don't love doing buildings that much.  Not my favorite (even though I'm always doing temples.  But temples are special.)

I just have to remember what my first acrylic paintings looked like.  They were terrible!  I was totally going to give up because I wasn't comfortable with acrylic paints.  But I didn't.  I'll continue to learn how to layer color and figure it out.

One of the art podcasts I listen to, (which is like art therapy), she talked about how every stroke matters.  Every stroke is getting you to be a better painter.  I feel like that is definitely true. Every stroke on this painting taught me some lessons, and I was uncomfortable a lot of the time.

The bright point is that I already sold this painting and I only did it a few days ago.