The background of a painting is very important to me. It’s the birth of a new painting, the start of a new journey. While working on it, most insights about what the painting is about, come popping up. Also the colors I use in that very first stage will be my guide for what’s up next. And even in the first layer I can recognize some figurative elements that will lead me to a composition.
A good foundation is just one – and very important – stage, but in most cases there’s a lot of more to do after that. It’s just sometimes that a background is immediately so good, that you don’t have to do anything at all (like in Blue which is just one layer).
Having a good background is a must for making a good painting. It’s also the intuitive part, in which all the insights about the painting or what you actually want to paint, come up. It’s the feeling you’re starting something new. The base of the painting rests here.
There’s definitely nothing that can fail here. Everything is good. And if not, just give it a new background till you’re satisfied. But… What if your background is already beautiful? You have to choose whether to leave it this way – finished! – or have the courage to go on with this one and make it even better! The best paintings come from perfect first-layer-paintings.
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