The Water Path

This painting kicked my butt. It's the first time I ever tried nine figures in a piece. Up until now I had mostly done head studies. Worse then that, I was on a long hiatus from painting before doing this. I'm finally back in the groove, and this is the painting that got me there. I had a photograph sitting around for a while, that I had wanted to paint for the longest time. (I was in Israel about three years ago, so that's a good guess for how long it was sitting around)

While I was happy with how this turned out, I left the painting still feeling I needed a better handle on skin tones, that the photograph was more interesting, and that the composition wasn't anything spectacular. The fact that I spent a month on and off on this piece also wasn't encouraging, as I prefer to do paintings in a single sitting. It's the same for writing, for poems, and just abut everything I do.