Vineyard View - Fix It Friday #23

Vineyard View, 9 x 12, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2020

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Today's fix is from a Napa Valley trip I took a few years ago...

The day I chose this location to do some plein air painting, the sky was full of gorgeous clouds. When I came back the next morning, it was foggy but I blocked in my painting leaving LOTS of room for that glorious sky. I just knew it was coming. It never did. The fog never wore off. Best laid plans gone awry, and the painting stayed misty. Until now...

BEFORE

AFTER

CHANGES

Problem - Canvas looked "cut in half" at the horizontal center line.

Fix - Raised up the mountain tops slightly past center and added activity above the center line.

Problem - So much canvas devoted to the sky, but nothing going on.

Fix - Added a sky feature - clouds! 

Problem - Foreground field was disconnected from distant field layers. 

Fix - Darkened the foreground to a value more similar to the field beyond, and added "field markings" to make it feel like a continuation of tilled land.

Problem - Background mountain range was disconnected from previous field layers. 

Fix - Added just a "suggestion" of fields continuing into distant valleys, in order to make the valley feel expansive and cohesive.

OBSERVATIONS

Thank goodness I took some pictures of that first day with all the clouds! And thank goodness I still had them in my files! It took me awhile to revisit this one, but I'm so glad I did! It now looks like, feels like, smells like the lush valley vista that I was so compelled to paint on that California hillside!!