Today I thought I would talk about what I call the"chess game" of art. When you start a painting you are thinking "a few moves ahead" just like a good chess player would. For example, when I'm painting the top of a sky I'm thinking about the transition from dark at the top, to light at the bottom. Another example is painting buildings. You want to do it in a way where you paint the back and work your way to the front. If you are a really good "chess player" you work on the building after the background areas are dry. This way you can rest your hand on the painting which makes doing the detail work easier. This is how I went about painting the library in the back in
"Bench At Bayne Park". I did the dark areas of the foilage, the basic shape of the library, and then detailed it once the dark foilage was dry.

  Another scenario where the chess game of art comes into play is when you run into a problem on your painting. Sometimes things are flowing and you take a coffee break, come back and notice something that you didn't take into account. This is when you drink the coffee while staring at your painting like a hunter stalking prey. Sometimes it comes to you fast on how to handle it, and sometimes you have to put that work on the side until you come up with something.

  The final chess game of art happens when you finish a painting. How do you want to market this work? Are you going to frame it? Would this painting make for a good print?

  The point I'm trying to make is that yes, there are many spontaneous things in a painting that happen naturally without the artist even thinking about it. The artist works with these and makes adjustments to their plan of attack until you have a finished painting, checkmate! I'll see you again in a few days, take care.