I finally did a "redoux" on my "Lagoon" painting from several months ago.  The first time I posted it most people had said they liked it ... maybe because I said I enjoyed painting it so much, but two artists I admire and from whom I requested critiques, made suggestions that I've tried to incorporate in this version.   My friend and art teacher, Johanna Spinks, felt that the land mass above the black bird.. (heron??) was uninteresting... nothing to look at.  Then later I took the painting with me to Greg LaRock's workshop because he offered to critique a few paintings if we brought them with us.  He said the same thing about the first land mass and also suggested that the way the painting was divided into two sections by the water in the middle sort of made the painting look like it should be cut in half and made into two paintings.  Greg talked a lot in his workshop about paying attention to the "path" we as artists want to help the viewers' eyes to travel as they view our paintings.

For whatever reason, last Saturday night as I was sleeping, my mind settled on this painting and planned some changes.   (Do we ever REALLY sleep???)  So on Sunday I decided to drag it out and repaint "revisit" it.  The background and second land mass seemed to work fine so I left them as they were.  I worked again on making the grasses more interesting using color and brushwork.  I actually painted on a printed image of the painting to see how I could change the shape of the foreground land mass so that it didn't cut the painting in half... then when I was happy with the idea, painted it on the actual painting..... such is the beauty of oil painting... If you don't like it... paint right over it and cover up the old part.   Then to add more interesting places to draw the eyes, I added two egrets coming in for a landing... or taking off... not sure.

The original scene was from a visit to the Malibu Lagoon sometime last year.  The Lagoon is just north of the Adamson House in my previous posts and also north of the Malibu pier and Surfrider's Beach.

I think I like this version better!!