Painting A Morning View and Mirror Usage

I Avoid to Look & and Mirror Usage Explained

I love this painting. The keys just right I think. (Hard to get the tiny differences in value right on camera.) Trouble departing from this one as well. Like most of them.

Still, I avoid looking at my own stuff. Some keep their (new) paintings on display when you can see it 24/7. I wrote about that before: I would never be able to relax.

Why? That would trigger all kinds of thoughts. "I need to think of this next, I'll have to go there, I'll have to varnish it, frame it, ooh this looks nice, is this horizon ok? Is that splatter of paint out of direction? Let's take it to a mirror"....and so on! Nope.

I do need peace of mind so I stack them in drying cabinets, similar to my canvas panel carrier (video how to create those is here.)

The Mirror is your best friend

But I do love them. And for 99% I won't change them indoors. At the scene I scrutinize "Is it really ready?" by taking out the mirror +/- 15 or more times before I end.

This will give me an objective look/vision upon the composition, brushstrokes, color, directions, and so on. Try it yourself. (See below in this post examples of mirror use).

LSU16-2014 Landscape Pleinair 'A Dutch Morning View'
oil on canvas, 24x30 cm | 9.6" x 11.8" sold Find Landscapes for Sale here:

I place the mirror to the side of my right eye and only look at the painting's (dis)harmony. You'd then want to only fix what needs fixing. Then to check the mirror again to see if the 'fixes' worked. And so on.

Here, Peggy Kroll Roberts looks at the whole scene/and painting to compare/evaluate. 

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Great to be 'done' with painting when the day starts.
More time for all other things, like writing these posts :)