Sometimes when I am not sure what I’d like to paint, I flip through my old photos. While doing just that this evening I came across a photo I took at the Detroit Zoo last summer. I liked it but it was a little too bland so I popped it in to photoshop and played with it a bit to make the colors a little more dramatic. I then used this altered image as my photo reference for this painting.

My original intention was to make this into a very abstract painting, but it decided to be a bit more impressionistic. Maybe I’ll try an abstract version later, and I’ll look at it for reference once before I start and then put it away. I have a tendency to go to realistic if my reference is right in front of me.

Do you ever use reference photos when you make abstract paintings?