When is a painting finished?

A painting is never complete. I never set aside a painting  until I can look at it for a long time without it telling me it needs changes.  I never stop painting until it resonates emotionally with the mood of the beholder. Also for story illustrative paintings, they are never satisfying me until they communicate to others.

A neighbor brought back a painting I had originally finished eleven years ago and I had given the neighbors as a wedding gift about ten years ago.  It had darkened hills as though a rain storm was coming. The image of it on their wedding announcement had lighter hills. Apparently I had darkened them to make the yellows stand out  as happy perky survivors. After all this time I could see my last minute changes gave the painting an overall feeling of foreboding.

This is how the painting looks after taking a few minutes to paint over the the mountains and green up the valley. Now the neighbor says the painting is after the rain instead of before the rain.

 

 

The original of the Greenwell beach cabin that I thought was finished in Hawaii seemed incomplete when I looked at it hanging at home.

 

With white lines suggesting back lighting, I popped out the plumeria tree, added definition to child gate on porch,  added some fallen flowers.

The white on the plumeria's branches did not help so I removed most of the white lining and now it is like the original with very small changes.

 

 

 

Of all the on location paintings I did in Hawaii in February the wedding painting was by far the most painted over and over. I had no fear of overworking it. At first I had an uneasy feeling about the wedding but as time went by my feeling was for weddings in general so the painting took on the dreamy atmosphere of hope.

When the  wedding painting was almost complete, but I was not sure, I shared it with the Tuesday Critic Group at the Old World Delhi  in Corvallis.

 I like to hear critics of my new story paintings to make sure people see my story. I received good feed back. The log and sand was ambiguous. The painting had a hole in back of the log - a difficult problem for painters.  To my fellow artists the log looks like ground.  So at home I made the sand lighter to define where the log ended.

 

Before critic

After

 

 Another painting hanging up on trial is of fan coral. I thought it was finished in January, but it is still in question hanging up in our kitchen/ dining area. Living with it for awhile, I may decide but another way to decide is to put it in a closet for a few months until I can look with a fresh critical eye.
 

 This is how the painting looks now.

This painting was started years ago of an entirely different subject.  North Albany Autumn has become a poetic interpretation of Belize fan coral and fish.

 

My belief is never be afraid to overwork a painting. Working on an exercise is nonsense and an easy excuse for abandoning the work that could transform itself many times.  Paintings are not suppose to be perfect. Paintings do not need to be finished; they are part of an ongoing learning experience.

Watercolor painting without glass without visible frame

 


A fresh coat of Golden absorbent ground on canvas boards. When it dries it is matt.



 

When adding acrylic medium to watercolor paint, the medium makes the paint dry hard so keeping the moist watercolors seperate is useful. Left over paint can be kept in a bag with a wet sponge. When painting outside the paint palette will go into an airtight box.



"From my Studio Window" is on a 14x 11 inch canvas board covered with

 Golden brand absorbent ground for watercolors.

 This is my first watercolor in which I mixed  my watercolor with diluted Liquitex gloss medium,

  1 part medium to 2 parts water.  Most of the paint was stable when brushing on the the medium to make the colors permanent, but  some darks smeared.. I suspect I didn't get as much medium in the dark colors that ran into the light colors.
 The watercolor mixed with dilute medium has the same quality as translucent watercolors with some advantages. Watercolor paints is  lighter weight and requires less space in a suitcase. Painting on a personally prepared absorbent ground means the water media can either remain transparent or  take on the appearance of other media.  Gouache white or acrylic white can be mixed in to make it more opaque.. Then more acrylics or oils can be built up over the watercolor. Finally the permanence of the surface does not require the protection of glass or Plexiglass.

I like the glassless presentation of watercolors. Gone are the distracting reflections and all the fuss with framing and cleaning the glass.