TM8456 Homage 30×48 oil on panel

Some paintings seem finished, until they don’t. Homage, a painting I thought I had finished, recently looked at me from the studio wall and said not yet! I agreed. It needed something, but I wasn’t sure what. So I put the painting back on the easel and dove in, lightening the trees on the sunny side, developing the distant ledges with more definitive highlights, adding more leaves floating on the current, and then it came it to me – bring some sound into the painting with water sheeting over the rocks. It isn’t the torrent of spring melt, but the quieter sound of summer’s flow. I also brought more light into the shadows, and reworked the balance between all the parts of the composition. It might be done. Details below. Previous (unfinished) version below the details. Enjoy!

TM8456 Homage – detail of distant trees

TM8456 Homage – detail of water sheeting over boulders

TM8456 Homage – detail from water line with leaves floating on current

TM8456 Homage – detail from shadows showing granite textures and moss

TM8456 Homage 30×48 first version