Gift horses

Oil on wood, 16 x 12 inches (41 x 30 cm)

Another thing I learned from Ed Ahlstrom was to look for areas in a painting where the ground color of the canvas will work "as is," and then take advantage of that bit of luck. I noticed that the cool medium gray ground of this board was working pretty well in the shadowy areas of the figure's legs, because they were relatively far from the source of the very warm light. The cool tones play off nicely against the warmer colors in the upper body, I think.

Lesson for today: Never paint over a perfectly good color, and never look a gift horse in the mouth!