Never leaving "well enough" alone

One of the most important lessons in art is knowing when to stop painting. I don't mean stop painting altogether! I mean, knowing when to walk away from the piece you are currently working on and call it finished. How do you know when it is finished? That's going to be different for everyone and every painting. Sorry, sometimes there are no easy answers! I've found that setting solid deadlines and sticking to them keep me from endlessly picking at a painting. But I don't always have deadlines.

Realizing I needed to practice my edges I did a few small studies a while back. My model is a little butterfly who valiantly gave his life in the name of art.

Painting from life in progress

I also thought I would experiment with a drippy background. In the end, though, I chickened out. I finished with a mostly solid, neutral background. The drips became too subtle.

I was content with the painting, I thought. I had achieved the edgework I was looking for. The body looks soft and fuzzy, the wings have just enough detail. But I wasn't happy. 

I realized I needed a little bit more bravery.Brave endeavors usually require weapons. I grabbed my knife.

Yellow Butterfly

Ok, I'll admit this is one of those "before and after" photos where the colors in the first photo are bit drab, and the second, voila! But, what a difference! The rough texture sets off the refined butterfly exactly as I hoped it would.

So, if I had one bit of advice for any struggling artists out there, it would be this: Never hope to be completely satisfied with your work. Always push yourself harder with each painting. Not every experiment will be successful, but somewhere along the way you will have unexpected and exciting breakthroughs! 

The Fall, New Figure Painting

So far the greatest benefit of re-writing a blog is having past posts I can recycle. It's a nice break from trying to write something clever.

Recently I decided to take a risk and do a painting with a lot of texture and some wonderful drippy paint. I've done drips before but this time I wanted it combined with some knifework. Normally when an artist decides to try something new, she paints a study first. I'm not normal. I dive right in.

The Fall, 14x24, Oil on Linen

The model is my niece Evelyn. Evie is a typical little girl, energetic, bright, caring. But what I wanted to capture is the look she gets when she is lost in deep thought. 

Coming up with the concept is easy. The photo shoot was a different story. Put a pretty little dress on a pretty little girl and try to explain to her your artistic vision for the painting to follow. What I got was a fairy princess who wanted nothing more than to laugh and twirl. After over 400 images, I was getting tired and frustrated; she was getting tired and frustrated, and I finally got the shot I was looking for.

Evie was visiting when I was working on the painting. I wanted to finish it before she had to go home (she lives over 1,000 miles away). Four weeks of work. It took a lot of late nights and working through the weekend, but I did it! Her reaction was the best: "look at my hair! I love it!". 

I entered the painting in the Richeson 75 International Portrait / Figure Competition. I was thrilled to be named a finalist. I was able to attend the artist reception. I'm so glad I did.

Second Place 2014 Richeson 75 Portrait/Figure Competition

There were so many awesome works there! I was beyond honored to take second place. To see all the finalists, visit Richeson 75. 

Blogging about art and life

I've tried this before. This blogging stuff. I'm only a great writer in my head. Give me a keyboard and all the eloquent prose goes right out the window. I tried writing about my paintings. It always felt forced, like I was writing for a school project. I got a C- by the way. Never one to back away from something I am not good at, I'm trying this once more. So here goes.

I didn't start out as a visual artist. My dream was to sing, or act, or sing and act. Musicals would have been a great job for me. Then the "real world" slowly crept up on me. I found myself standing in front of a time clock way too many times. Singing in the car on the way to work didn't rid me of all the pent up creative energy that was building, so I started drawing. I found a job as a picture framer and I loved it. I was surrounded by art day in and day out. For a while that's what I did. Work ridiculous retail hours,and create a handful of substandard drawings and one lousy painting per year.

Lots of stuff happened before 2009. I'm sure I'll write about it someday. But 2009 was the year I decided to become a better artist. I had that revelation before, but this was the first time I put some real effort into it. I'm talking working from 9 to 6 at my "day job" and studying painting from 7 to 11, or later. There was a tipping point that brought me to work that hard. Behold, Hollyhock Lane:

This was an actual street a few blocks away from where I lived with actual hollyhocks planted under the sign. For years I thought it would make a great painting. I didn't paint it because I was sure I would botch it up. I eventually did anyway. Now, I’m not saying this is a bad painting, but it’s bad. The colors are all wrong, values are all wrong, the forms do not turn. It was easy to see what was wrong, but not too easy to see how to fix it. There was only one thing to do, forget EVERYTHING I thought I knew about art.

Over the years I bought dozens of books and videos on painting. Each new book sent me to the art store to buy the recommended paints, mediums and brushes. Each painting that followed failed. 

Then I discovered online art forums. There I found a group of working artists who were willing to share how they were able to produce amazing works of art. The answer was simple. Work from life, and treat the study of line and color as a science, not "art".

Four months later I produced this:

Tea With Lemon

I don't know how, but it clicked. Suddenly realistic painting made sense. Oddly enough, at the same time, I realized I knew nothing about art and I had a long road ahead of me.

It took years of unbelievably hard work to bring myself to the point that I could devote all my time to painting. I've been a full time artist now since September 2012. It's an interesting story, I should share it with you someday.

So stick around. I'll talk about my work, my thoughts on the art world, and my adventures along the way. Feel free to comment, ask questions, visit my website, follow me on Facebook, you know, all that fun stuff.