Mountain Lake, Mountain Lake, Mountain River and Mountain Lake (Acrylic on Canvas Board)

The top one is the best of the bunch: I’m fairly certain these were all done by the same person. 

Here we have the same problem I so frequently encounter: these paintings manage to be not bad while also being just not that great. There is gumption here, and drive, and focus, but nothing important is being said with the paint. Or, if not nothing important, than nothing really worth…the time spent. 

But by expending this same amount of paint and intent/effort creating something real, non-ersatz/cloying/trite, a good painting could come of it. Even a bad portrait of a real person, or a self-portrait, would matter more than this. A building. A room. Something, anything real. Not this…pre-fab, easy, boring, and totally expected flapdoodle.