Day Twenty-Five- 30 Paintings in 30 Days- Surveying Her Queendom

Surveying Her Queendom

 

Before... almost.
 

16x20 oil on canvas panel
The Before was a painting I did in a workshop nine years ago, when I was just new at oil painting. I forgot to take a picture of it until I'd already sketched in a cowgirl hat, so you'll have to mentally remove that to see the Before.  I remember the great Judith Carducci looking at my efforts and speculating that I might have cataracts.  It really threw me.  As it turns out, I've had that confirmed, now these years later.  I don't know why I kept the painting. It had been of the model in the workshop and I couldn't see any use for the thing, but kept not tossing it.  Today when I was rooting around for a panel to paint on, I came across this "Before," and thought maybe I'd paint over it.  But then I thought of her as a Cowgirl... and two hours later she was a rancher out "Surveying Her Queendom." A much better ending for that old start, I think. It's more cleavage than most ranchers might show, I suppose, but maybe she just got up and threw her jacket over her nightgown...?  Hey, it could happen!