The process

Do you ever wonder how an idea goes from a photo to a painting? The photo shows how things actually looked and I'll use it as a general placement guide but for me the point of doing a painting is to get to what that moment in time felt like so it's more an impression or expression of the emotion. This one seems to be going well so far and I got some pretty funny looks out in the front yard today when I decided I couldn't tell what the branches of the lilac bushes looked like from the photo and dashed outside for a few moments to work from the real thing. Doing it now was perfect because the leaves were gone and there was nothing to distract me from observing the actual structure of the branches. I'm sure the neighbors and passers by (I live on a fairly busy street) are really beginning to wonder about me...