Shotgun Shack

Another small painting trying things out. This time however I think I am getting somewhere; what bugs me about too much of my work is that I paint too literal to what is in front of me and put too much detail in. I have realised that most of the work by other artists that I admire all have the same thing in common, they lose edges and merge things together. This not only helps the atmosphere as things are more suggested than stated but the design becomes stronger as the shapes become larger. These are my two main concerns in what I am trying to achieve, atmosphere and strong design.
This painting of a shotgun shack I came across in New Orleans many years ago is starting to address this new way of going about things. I hope to put all this much more into practice in the next painting whatever the subject may be.
I now have a note stuck to my easel saying "Lose edges! Join shapes".
Oil on linen 12" x 16"
There is a short step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.