October hopped by. I managed to catch a few rabbits.

This is a continuation of the series I started in August. The original idea was to explore three stages of life: childhood, adulthood, and old age, each represented by a woman and a rabbit. The first painting, a little girl with a rabbit, was completed in August. I had several competing ideas for the adult woman, but couldn’t come up with a satisfying design for old age. So instead of moving neatly through the stages, I decided to try out all the designs for the middle.

The first painting features an imagined face, with large, blocky shapes and abstract treatment in certain areas. I like the color contrasts, especially the warm orange against the blues and purples, and I think the overall composition works reasonably well. The face, though, feels a little generic. It looks like a woman, but not particularly like someone. The execution largely followed what I had in mind, which is not always the same as achieving what I wanted. Looking at it now, especially beside the other two paintings, I also find the handling a bit chalky.

For the next one, I modeled the face after my mother when she was young. Interestingly, the result looks a little like me too. I kept the background and clothing fairly abstract, but took a more realistic approach to the face and the rabbit. Perhaps I was trying to correct the chalkiness and chunkiness of the previous painting. In any case, I went rather far in the opposite direction.

This one took the longest, not because I worked on it continuously, but because I kept coming back to revise it. I would think it was finished, leave it alone for a while, then notice something that bothered me. The face received quite a few adjustments, and so did the rabbit. Eventually I got the colors more or less where I wanted them, but I think I overworked both. There is a certain tightness in the painting that I would have preferred to avoid. Apparently, trying to make something look more natural can have the opposite effect.

The third painting is based on myself. I originally intended an abstract background, as in the other two, but somehow it didn’t work. Perhaps there was simply too much negative space in this composition, and the abstract shapes couldn’t hold it together. I changed the design and added a framed painting behind the woman.

That introduced another problem: what should be in the painting within the painting? I changed its contents a couple of times, trying to find something relevant to the rest of the composition. I’m still not convinced the current arrangement is entirely successful, but eventually I gave up. I even added a fake seal, as if stamping it would make the painting officially finished. Ha!

For a while I considered going further with the design. Since the setting had become more realistic, perhaps I should add patterns to the frame and the woman’s robe, introducing a more decorative element to tie things together. But I couldn’t picture a convincing design in my head. And given how much revision this painting had already endured, adding more without a clear idea seemed unwise. So I’m leaving it as it is, at least for now.

Changing ideas after a painting is underway is risky business. In theory, with oil paint, we can paint over almost anything. If you paint with thick paint and change it before it dry, you can scrape it away. I, however, often paint thin, and it dries fast. So in practice, the buildup of layers can make later work frustrating.

On the other hand, following a plan too faithfully can be dull. Some of the more interesting things happen when a painting wanders away from the original idea. Whether the detour makes the painting better is another question. But that’s part of the fun, isn’t it?

If it hops, I hop along.