no more pain

I have been in agony (metaphorically only, don't worry).

I have this thing about rocks. The painting I am working on had some wonderful rocks in it. But because the photograph I was using was taken on an overcast day I was stuck with the problem of a light source to make the painting as a whole convincing. Easy, you might say. Just pick an angle and apply it. Not true, here in Italy.
Normally I would simply choose a light source to make the buildings come to life. But on rocky cliffside villages the houses are at all sorts of angles, and if I paint for the sun I flatten them and lose their higgledy piggledy charm. If I get hung up on detail I die, and the painting with me.

Today was decision day. Something had to go, the rocks or the houses. There was too much happening in the composition. There was no real focal point, or, rather, there were three focal points. I was ruthless, professional. I pushed the rocks back and worked on the houses. We are on our way to having one main focal point...

We are a pretty amazing breed, we painters. We push rocks and cliffs around with a few strokes of the hand. Other people use dynamite, then have trouble putting them back again.

PS: The water level really is the camera, and where I take the photograph (on my lop-sided chimney). After seeing it in this photo too I measured it, and both sides of the water are 14 cm from the bottom. Truly!

PPS: I did say at the start that this could be a lesson on how NOT to approach a painting...