Painting on Pause & what's next at the Steam Plant

It's can be hard to find the line between "done" and "overworked."  I have a couple of small fixes to make from the version you see here, and then the painting will be set aside.  There's a lot of reflected light in the image below, mostly due to the fresh oil in the paint, but there's also some things I want to refine.  I do need to give this a break (so I can travel!) but also so I can look at it with fresh eyes in a few weeks and make sure I've hit the mark for finishing it.

As for changes, in the past couple of days, I took out the flowers that were in the background on the left, no reason to be distracted by them.  I'm going to keep the large circular dial that's on the rear steam turbine, but I think I'll reduce its intensity so it doesn't appear quite so round and doesn't draw your attention quite so much.  You'd be surprised at how uneven the pipes really are in person, clearly made and bent into place by hand long ago, and although I'm not finding it distracting at the top, but I am not so sure that the lower pipes aren't too red, too visible at the bottom.  So that's another minor fix I need to make.  The painting is 36 x 48" in oil on a birch panel.

Now that I've actually brought my flower installation/paint idea close to done, what's next?  Well, first of all, Seattle Flower Works and I both loved doing this.  We are really excited about the idea of doing it again, using seasonal flowers/branches in a few months.  We'd like to invite people into the process more and maybe open the space while we are working so that the public can come in, take pictures and, I hope, help support the Georgetown Steam Plant --you can learn more about the plans at https://georgetownsteamplant.squarespace.com/.  We'll be coming up with the timing and a plan for that in the next couple of months.

For this painting, I'd like to see it raise funds for the Georgetown Steam Plant.  If there is an opportunity to sell it and donate the proceeds, I'll do that.  Or maybe I'll donate the painting.  Not sure, but my goal is to use this both to help an important cause and to springboard this into future opportunities for collaborations and paintings.

While the paint is drying, I'm packing up sketchbooks and gouache for travel in Portugal and Copenhagen!   My time in Portugal will be along the Algarve, not going north to Lisbon or Porto or Evora (for my last trip's blog of those places, see pourchewgal.blogspot.com)   I'm planning a mix of revising sites I've been to before and taking on some new adventures. Stay tuned.