Corraling the Cranberry Harvest

I started this painting a year ago.   I loved the composition at the time, but I was not happy with the figures, especially the foreground figure in the painting.   I like to do the cranberry scenes in the fall when the bright, bobbing cranberries are harvested, so I gave it another chance this year.   This piece was painted using both a photograph that I took last year at the Makepeace Cranberry Festival (for the subject and placement), and a plein air cranberry harvest painting that I did on site last year (for color reference).

The workers were pulling a black corraling strip into a spiral that is used to gather the floating berries while a vacuum hose suctioned the berries.  The berries then passed into a sifting machine and were hosed off into an 18 wheeler stationed beside the bog. 

I virtually repainted the entire canvas, but having the ghost of the previous painting underneath made the adjustments quicker and easier.   Another benefit was that the overpainting resulted in some extra texture and color variation.

Manning the Cranberry Corral

This time for the figures I tried to think of each cranberry worker image as a collection of colored brushstrokes, rather than people.   This helped give an impressionistic look and improved the perspective.

My son who has a keen eye and on whom I rely to give me a critique toward the end of my paintings noted that one problem was that the shape of the corralled cranberries was somewhat warped and even though was accurate to the photo, it did not seem right in the painting.   He suggested straightening the distant edge of the red strip by widening the water.   I had been blind to it, but it made a big difference.

More cranberry harvest paintings are in progress since this is the season.   I'm not tired of the scene yet and hope you're not either.