Composition 101 - Monday Morning (20"x14")

Monday morning wash hangs in a gentle breeze in this painting I completed yesterday. I wanted to capture some of the sense of home that a scene like this gives me. Think of those wonderfully scented sheets on your Saturday night bed - relaxing isn't it? Anyhow, that's what I was trying to capture in this painting.I took the photo reference for this painting while visiting Matthew and Christina (our son and DIL) where they lived near Finch, Ontario in fall 2006. Something always bugged me about this photo reference so I tucked it away for a time when I could identify what that was... and fix it.
When Sharon asked the class to bring photo reference I grabbed this photo. As I worked through the process Sharon outlined (see below) I identified the issue that I needed to address - the clothes hung straight down from the line and looked HEAVY! What? Most of the time the sheets practically dried in the time it took to hang them on the line where I grew up in Saskatchewan (Eston specifically). Once I figured that out in my sketches I really wanted to paint this scene. I'm mostly satisfied with it as is but now that I see it condensed down to such a small scale I believe I will put one more wash over the front of the house - it should be darker than the side because it's in full shade in this early morning scene.
For those of you that are interested in such stuff, here is the photo reference I used for this painting followed by photos of the steps I took to work out my composition and values. Enjoy!
Photo reference
Composition - Identify interesting shapes both positive and negative







Value Study Thumbnails
Larger Sketch and Value Study for transfer to watercolor painting