Learning lesson

The painting below has been an incredible learning experience for me. I wish I could say all of my paintings were like that but I am not sure as to why this one strikes a note with me. I was looking for a painting that would stand out and I think once it is completed it will do just that, well, you can't go wrong with black, white and red.

I am going through yet another process of change, selling my house is a big adventure, renovating, repainting, selling furniture etc, leaving my home. Also, when I am feeling 'out of sorts' I look back to home as a child, worry free. Home for me is England in a small city called Stoke-on-Trent. Mostly known for its pottery industry and once upon a time, mining. Sadly the pottery industry has declined, it seemed to happen rapidly (I did my dissertation on the the declining industry and why it was happening, mostly because of cheap imports from China and a lot of other reasons which I will not delve into). Anyway, I painted the Gladstone Pottery Museum a few years back and it has appeared again in this painting (perhaps using my artistic creativity). The black area is dark and mysterious, there is a visual but it is so dark it is a little hard to interpret. The tree is bare and ready for the cold winter spell to end, so it can blossom, or perhaps the tree is dead but for me, it is trying to survive. The red is 'home' but it is tainted and not sure if it is a good place or a bad place and to venture is to take a big risk.

What I learnt from this piece was that a painting can conjure up emotion in surprising ways, it can be different for each person. Also, my painting technique, I was having an issues with the tree and I realised one thing I had not done that I would normally which was to paint the whole canvas beforehand which makes it easier doing finer details like the branches of the tree. I had challenges with the red portion of the paining because I did not want it pink but I wanted to keep the deep red (I still am working on it). The black was the easier part for me, can't go wrong with black gray and white.

I will post the final version shortly.