A do-over

Beth Orton
48" x 12"
oil on wood, 2011

Not happy with last week's Beth Orton portrait I decided I needed to do a do-over. A painting hiatus of almost a month caused a rustiness that only could be loosened by painting a large painting. Such was my conviction after reviewing that portrait published in that last blog that I had worked on for so many days. So I set off with a 4ft plywood in front of me and this do-over on the left is the result: the brushstrokes are more decisive, it is looser, and the colors are more vivid than in the previous one. Still not that masterpiece that I'm always striving to produce but I'm back in the studio routine and I'll proudly include it in the series of a hundred paintings that make up the Top 100 2011. The song Shopping Trolley is a repeat from last year's list of one hundred and comes from the CD Perfect Strangers which was one of last year's top albums.