Every now and then it happens that I fuss over a painting in a frustrated way, trying to get all of the shapes accurate and working and reworking the painting for hours. Eventually the painting turns out OK, but then to relieve the tension I do a painting very quickly using only the loosest gestural strokes. Of course it is this second painting that turns out better, as is the case with the one above (I did not post the first painting). I wonder if it's necessary sometimes to paint the first one in order to get in the right frame of mind to paint the second. Thankfully, not always!

This is another of my urban landscapes of Mediterranean Europe, this time in the south of France. It is an oil painting and is 11 x 14 inches.