Painting is always an ongoing struggle for me. Every new piece presents new problems to solve and master. It can be frustrating. The appeal for me is the occasional success and the rewarding satisfaction that follows. Painting is like a gambler's addiction -- the intermittent reward keeps me coming back for more punishment!

I realize that my skills as a painter pales by comparison to many accomplished artists and that I will never become the painter or designer that I want to be. My goal, rather, is to become accomplished enough to visualize my ideas.

Having said that, here are some comments about this painting demo. Although simple in nature, this painting was actually very hard to paint (much harder than it should've been) primarily because I couldn't spend consecutive days on it. During the three weeks that it required, my focus wandered and the process of painting required more energy every time I sat down. Each painting session became arduous. I would often forget where I left off and wasted too much time rethinking old problems. My recommendation would be to paint over several uninterrupted consecutive days if possible.

Looking at this completed painting, there are some flaws. First, the texture of the foreground rock has the same character of texture and quality of look as the background rocks even though they are spatially far apart. (This was simply laziness on my behalf as I wanted to finish the painting!) Compositionally, it could be much stronger. The focus of interest in this painting is lost in the busy composition of the rock formations.