I'm getting into another oil painting.

I got some more paints for my birthday, so now I am working with colors that come from two different companies. It makes a difference. That red is a bit ridiculous, and will serve as an undercoat in the end, but it would have been more difficult to achieve with the colors I previously had.

I am becoming really interested in the choice between detail, and the lack of it. Right now, most parts of this painting that lack detail have an amateurish quality, but there are a couple of places that do not. The bushes against the left bottom of the building are probably the best part of the painting atm, IMO. The more I paint, the more I am amazed by paintings like this one by John Henry Twachtman:

So much deliberate choice and care is masked by a natural ease.

Juxtaposing these right now makes mine look laughably bad. :) I'll have to do it again when I am done.

There are a few moments when I am painting when I feel like I am in the zone, and what the brush leaves reflects it. When I painted those bushes against the building, I was like "fuck yeah". So weird, but it can make my day.

Our new venture hit a big milestone this week. Progress.