When Paintings do not Behave!

I feel very fortunate to be inspired to paint by my surroundings. In fact, I often have too many ideas and not enough hours in the day to paint! Sometimes the ideas flow easily onto paper or canvas and I'm fairly pleased with the results. Other times I have to work at the painting and try different approaches but I usually end up with a painting I'm satisfied with. Sometimes the paintings are like puzzles and it takes a while for the pieces to all come together. 

But let me be clear - I do not always manage to paint pieces I'm happy with! This is the case for most artists and it's actually from the paintings that go 'wrong' that we learn the most.

I'm going to share one such painting with you. I've tried many different approaches and every time I look at the painting I having feelings of disinterest to disgust! I welcome any feedback in the comments section.

The Hollywood sign is a very iconic sight and I wanted to try and paint it with my signature style of unusual angles and colors. I was inspired by the following photo:

I started with a sketch to see how I felt about the idea.

I felt there was potential so I then started my painting....

The letters were too fussy for me here.

I actually like this one! But I think I decided the colors were too dull.

I quite like the pastel colors but did not like the bushes!

Hate the scaffolding poles!

Here I decided to change and enlarge the letters.

I tried a looser style and change of colors here.

The colors are more fun but I still think the letters are too fussy.

Here I've tried to create bigger blocks of color... and here I have stopped for the moment. I've worked on this for months now and I'm too stubborn to give up on it, but I'm still not happy with it. I do love looking back on the process of the different layers and I just try to enjoy the process.

Even if I do not end up with a Hollywood sign painting I know that all the effort and experimenting is helping me learn and develop techniques for future paintings!