I have upended my normal painting process for my current series and embarked on an experiment.Whether or not it will work remains an open question, but in this week's Art Juice podcast, we discussed this new approach and I promised Alice that I would share my progress.Normally, I paint with no intention in mind, other than to portray my experience of the landscape around my home. I choose colours intuitively and I play with paint, adding layers until something speaks to me and I develop the painting.But this time, I was inspired by a small section of a painting I had recently completed. This is the painting: And this is the section I wanted to explore further:I love the transparent paint contrasted with opaque, I love the colours, I like the design, and I like the oil pastel marks.So rather than beginning with intuitive exploration that leads to a design (my normal, slow approach), I began this series by working to establish design and value contrasts first, and then working to achieve the effects I want.I am not yet sure whether this is working for me. It has certainly led to less paint usage and in some cases I'm happy with the design I established, but only two of the paintings feel close to resolution which leaves three still with a long way to go.Here are the two I feel are closest:With this one, I am interested in adding small details and maybe some light highlights or lines into the dark area.I like the textures and variety of paint application in this one, but it feels a little too controlled, so I need to make some risky moves to bring it back to life.These three paintings remain fairly unresolved (although I felt they were further along when I recorded the podcast!)I am excited by the possibilities in all these paintings. I would have liked to finish them all before open studios this coming weekend, but that won't happen and I'm OK with it. They will evolve when they are ready and each one will teach me something new. And THAT is why we do this :)