How do I get the right balance between loose and realistic in my artwork?

That’s a big question for me when I’m making paintings.  I am inspired by scenes I see, and how I feel as a result of seeing them.  When I make a painting I really want to show you both those things. So what is the best way of doing that?

Reference photo of a favourite place

I often take snapshots of things that catch my eye when I’m out and about.  Sometimes a good photo is enough. Often though the camera can’t convey the focus of the scene in the way I want, and it can’t show feelings I have about what I see. I find that when I draw I like to do it fast and quite freely. I want to summarise quickly what I see. Interestingly, I find that a regular drawing practice slows my looking down so I notice more details of things when I’m out walking and seeing things.

When I paint I usually exaggerate colours I see in the scene, and I simplify shapes because I don’t want to show every tiny detail, just the highlights. I find there are some things that I draw supersized compared with what a camera of the same scene would show. For example leaf shapes often are changed in size, simplified in shape, and exaggerated in colour in my work. 

The images above show two different paintings I did recently. One is far more realistic and the other is so loose its hard to tell what it is. For me I think there is a sweet spot in between these two.

I have been playing about with realistic versus very loose and almost abstract ways of painting over the last few months.  I enjoy really loose playing with colour, and bold mark-making when I’m in my studio and unconcerned with outcome. However, in my current seasonal noticings series of works I do like the outcome of my work to be recognisable, if only to me, in terms of the subject. I want the sense of place of my neighbourhood to be there. At the moment, for me that means the paintings require a balance between being realistic and loose and semi-abstract.  I don’t have an answer about how best to get there. I think its part of my current line of enquiry to keep exploring that question alongside my seasonal noticing.

For me the balance here is in the goldilocks zone - just right!

What is your preference? Do you love hyper-realistic drawings, or abstracts that only give a sense of something you can’t quite put your finger on?