Market Madness!!

I always enjoy a good Farmer's Market and look forward to the outdoor markets starting up again sometime in April or May.  I have taken a number of pictures at them and became inspired to try and paint something.  

My first 'practice' painting is oil on black gesso on paper.  I did about 4 prepatory drawings trying to find a good composition, and came up with the 12 x 16 one below.  I had to use about 3 different photos.  I quickly became disgruntled with all the detail and some errors and it was not very loose, so I set it aside.

12 x 16 oil on black gessoed paper

 I was not ready to quit so I looked at my photos and what I kept coming back to in the photos was this happy go lucky shopper, almost skipping along with his purchases and enjoying the nice weather.  So... I decided to make him the focus and loosen up.  I got a bigger canvas, 14" by 18" and started again.  I am much happier with the result.  My colour photo of the painting below is not showing all the colours that well, the pavement has some pinks / purples and yellows, but overall it worked out okay.  I think I will try a couple more with this theme.

14x18 black and white photo of the painting to check my values