Reflecting Pond and Its Source of Inspiration

I have been working on 'Reflecting Pond' on and off for 2 weeks. I split the process of its creation into 5 steps. It was a difficult painting by I enjoyed the journey, for the most part.

Step 1



Step 2



Step 3



Step 4



Step 5




Step 6
Reflecting Pond, 32'x 32'

This painting was inspired by Monet's waterlilies and 'Orange Grove in California' by Arthur Dove. Here they are for your reference.




I started painting keeping those two pieces in mind but the process took me to a different path so one would probably not find any resemblance to them in my work. Although, I guess, I do have a reflection in the water.

It was a challenging process as my ideas kept changing. One of the struggles was that the lower part with reflections was not coherent with the rest of the painting towards what I thought were final stages. It is especially apparent in step 4. It turned out that way because I was using different brush strokes and color handling. After quite a few hours of trying to solve this puzzle even with advice from my painting buddies and a teacher it was still not working for me. Finally, what seems to have done the trick was using connecting lines sewing two parts together and then extending some of the movement into the lower part.