Sometimes You Need a Redo

The original version of this landscape pastel of a Colorado Blue Spruce in Connecticut was done in a looser style. You can see it in a previous post of mine. I painted over it to see how a smoother version would look. I don't really like either one. Someday the more successful aspects of each edition may be incorporated into a larger scale pastel painting. 

Sometimes a piece of artwork can only be fixed by completely starting over. I do best with a redo when I'm in a patient mood, and have thought about the problems for a while. 

Thoughts on Trees

Really, this week's blog is more of a horticultural essay than something about art. It's too bad for you readers who happen across this art blog, but it does suggest why some landscape subjects are chosen over others for my pastel painting. 

Blue Spruce 1 by Paul Creedon, pastel artist

The blue spruce in this pastel landscape can be found on the Norwalk, CT Green, which was established over 250 years ago, and I feel is the most beautiful section of the city.

Trees as landscape subjects

I chose this tree as a subject because my father planted two similar blue spruce trees in front of our house before I was born and they eventually reached a height equivalent to three to four stories high. They caught a spruce blight, which meant my Dad had to spray poison on them early every spring to keep them alive. Unfortunately the stuff turned the trees green, but the new growth came in blue. 

If you look closely at the painting you can see some green behind the outermost blue growth. I guess the disease is still around, and the city has to treat the trees to keep them alive. There seem to be very few blue spruce left in New England, as far as I can tell. 

The tree in Norwalk sparked a memory, and I painted a recollection of my childhood, and a reminder of my late father.

So, that's an example of why some pictures come to be, and others which could be as nice or nicer, never see the light of day.