Solo Show- Final Strokes in Place!

'Uphill to the Ridge'

Yeah! An hour ago, I finished the last stroke of the last painting for my solo show at Penn State which opens in next month! I'm VERY happy with these latest works- bigger and brighter than ever before! Here's a rough still-in-studio photo of the painting which I finished today- one of nine large oils (almost as big as me) and more than thirty works total, which will be in the exhibit ('Passages'- Recent Paintings by Alice Kelsey, The HUB Gallery, Pennsylvania State University- see my website for details www.alicekelsey.com)

To give you a glimpse of the making of this painting, here's some photos of interim stages over several months:

Beginning

I laid in the essential composition and colors with thin oil paint, aiming for shapes and gesture that harmonize and energize.  Once these forces are present, the painting itself gives me ideas about what to tune, what to add to augment it's mood and overall balance....becoming something more 'whole':

Middle stage

And then some more balancing (note lighter and softer color in left sky):

Mid- Late stage

And finally, today I made some small but essential (to me, anyway :)) changes... not sure if they're readily apparent-  I wonder if viewers can find the three changes to this last image:

Final stage