The Back Story

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Painting Frustrations and Lessons Learned

It's not fun to share my disappointments.

But it's important for me to be 
transparent about my art journey
(the successes as well as the failures). 

*****

*Remember to keep pressing forward.

*Don't linger too long on any one painting. 

*Move on to your next piece.

These are some of the lessons
that I learned over the weekend. 

I was working on this folk art piece and 
thought my design was okay, but I wasn't 
happy with the colors. 

Imagine a visual "scratching on a chalkboard".

That's the best way to describe it. 

 Instead of leaving well enough alone, 
I decided to rework it. 


Hoping to harmonize, I ended
up making a big mess of things.

I kept working and reworking it.

Whatever I did seemed to get me further
away from where I wanted it to be. 

I came to the conclusion, that it'd been
better had I just left it alone and moved
on to my next painting. 


On the bright side, I learned something of value.

I'm not sure if I'll paint over this one
and reuse the board, or keep it as a reminder.

Either way, I'm excited to be moving on to my next piece
and taking this valuable lesson with me!


2 comments:

  1. "Don't beat it to death" is what I used to hear from my former watercolor teacher. I heard it, but did not take her advice for a very long time. Your post made me smile - brought back memories.

    The teacher taught me to set the "troublesome" piece of artwork aside and not to return to look at it for at least a week. I found wisdom in that. It's amazing what you see when you look at your painting with fresh eyes.

    It may not be where you wanted it to be, but I think your piece is charming.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you Chris. Your advice and compliment are greatly appreciated.

    ReplyDelete

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