Deciding to stop is something new to me in painting. It seems to distinguish oil painting from watercolours. Watercolours are something of an adrenaline rush. They are swift, unwieldy, reckless and spontaneous. There is no going back, no correction, few ways to change course and there always seems to be an obvious end….a point in a picture, where it would be foolish to continue. A saturation point where I know the paper simply can’t take another layer of water and pigment. In watercolour….it is a sudden stop.
Now on my oil painting journey I finally understand the intense inquiry about the need for it to end, pulling against the possibility of just one more glaze here and there, a touch more highlight, a minor change of hue. Oil painting affords ME the luxury of deciding when to stop. I’m not sure it’s a privilege I wanted. It is the ability to work and re-work that makes oil paint so appealing….but also so maddening. So the decision to stop is an intellectual one.
This time it’s the end of a learning road for me. I’ve learnt as much as I can from this painting. It has made me thirsty for more. I have drunk as much from this canvas as I can. This is part of the problem for the thirsty artist (no…not the bill for all the bottles of sav blanc….that’s another issue) – as soon as a painting is done I know I could do it better if I started again. The process teaches me so much about the subject, the medium….that I can’t help casting this painting aside to collect dust as I move onto the next (better) project. I really don’t care about the painting that is done….it is the 2 new paintings in progress on my easel that have my attention now.
And so the journey of the thirsty artist continues. This first ‘finished’ canvas is posted here for others who have followed this road. Perhaps here it will not collect as much dust.
I not only have enjoyed reading this post or your but I also have very much identified with it.
ReplyDeleteEven though are style of work differs considerable, the similarities are considerable. There was a painting with collage that took 2.6 years to complete, another one has been languishing about since February of this year. Of course there are those that seem to take less time and are completed within a month or less.
What I am trying to say is that I have discovered to allow the canvas time to grow and speak back to me. The only thing negative about such a process is that one begins to feel that everything is in limbo, as I like to see a painting completed. However these canvases half completed or partially started are like my children, who start out crawling before they can walk, or talk a constructive and meaningful sentence.
Remember, the process of creativity is like a cup of good tea that first needed to brew a little.
Wishing you a wonderful week,
Egmont
Hi Gorgeous! HOW DID I MISS THIS post?? Your final painting is exquisite but of course that's easy for me to say. The thirsty artist lies within me too - funny how, once finished, we have the inner push (or is it mental?) to discard and go on. Maybe that's what creativity is all about indeed!
ReplyDeleteRae - I'm fascinated by this piece. I could never imagine painting something so real...
Enjoy the bottles of sav blanc and dying to see the next process come to life... Enjoy the 'voyage' by the way. All the world's best will tell us that it's not the destination but the journey that counts! So maybe it's natural that the end product diminishes in consequence. It's the next journey of discovery we're after!
Love
This is fantastic and makes so much sense. Lovely.
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