“Sometimes you can dig in again and retrieve the painting and make it something else. Then it acquires another kind of spontaneity. It becomes a more worked into scrubbed surface. Often darker, more dense. You have salvaged its essence.”
Helen Frankenthaler, Artist

I Could Have Pushed That Further

This is one of my worst fears with respect to my art-making. I dread saying this to myself, especially after I think I have “finished” a painting.

When I say this to myself. it usually means I either became precious and timid with the work, or I gave up on it.

I always have good intentions at the start of a new painting. I tell myself that I'm really going to step out of my comfort zone and take some serious risks with this next one.

But you just never know until you get well into a new painting how it's going to look and what will happen during the process of creating it. You never know how you will feel during the making of this new painting until you actually see what is happening on the surface of your canvas.

This why I always try and focus on the process. The color mixing, the shape-making, the layering and texture, the brush stroke, the drip, the edge, etc.

More often that not, I feel I can push my work further. And, sometimes, in the process of wanting and trying to take my work further, I end up believing that I have destroyed it. I work on it so much that I think I have ruined it.

But, you know what? There is nothing wrong here. There is nothing wrong with ending up with something that happened unexpectedly because you wanted to push it further.

And, by the way, there is no such thing as destroying or ruining a painting.

"Excitingly unexpected" is way better than safe, precious, timid and uninspired. The only path to the unexpected is by trying to push your work further.

When I “overwork” a painting, I know that it was because of my determination, passion, love of process and perseverance. It is because I want to desperately realize my vision.

And, here's the kicker.

An “overworked” painting means that I just added aesthetic layers to the painting that will influence the look of the final painting. An “overworked” painting just means that the painting is unfinished, and that I have more work to do.

Realizing and accepting this allows me to go back into the painting with a new sense of purpose, and approach it with reckless abandon. I don’t like the painting as it is, so I have nothing to lose. After all, what am I going to? Ruin it?

Best,

David

I COULD HAVE PUSHED THAT FURTHER

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I COULD HAVE PUSHED THAT FURTHER