En Plein Air: Church Under the Canopy (Oil, 12 x 9)

It was a humid morning. As I was walking along Greenway N., I noticed the sporadic sunlit patches on the Church-in-the Gardens as well as the tall old trees surrounding it. When the painting was finished, I sort of had double feelings about it. As a study, I seemed to have caught the value relations. However, as a learning experience, I knew I failed. Because from the very beginning, I told myself that I should change my usual approach and learn to paint like Russian artist Bato Dugarzhopov does, that is, to focus on color relations in such a simplified way that I shouldn't consider form of the objects and let the process take care of it. I knew it was a tug of war with myself to change my regular approach. I needed to control myself in every moment of the process, but it was not easy and, sometimes, I forgot and went back my usual way. Things like that often happen in my self-teaching experiences.

Unsatisfied with myself, when I got home, I pulled out my painting kit and redid it using impasto for the first time. I present it as below. No matter what you think of it, I do feel there is something new to consider in my approach when I paint outside from now on, especially the color scheme.