|
Information compiled by Donald Landry
If you have trouble deciding when a painting is finished,
there are simple steps and tools you can use to negotiate
the maze of uncertainty. The following are three oft-heard
(yet just as often ignored) fundamentals:
-
Stand back often. Give yourself a new perspective by
pulling back from the intensity of the moment. Step back,
close your eyes and reopen them slowly, looking at the
painting as a unit from a distance. Our paintings are like
most of us--a little short of perfect when viewed under a
microscope.
-
Don't force an area that's just not working. When you
hit an impasse, work elsewhere. Don't work and rework the
sky because you can't get the color right; you'll be amazed
at how unimportant it will feel after you let it go. Often
it needs only a little work to pull it together when you
come back to it, and sometimes it needs nothing at all.
-
Have a mat and frame on hand as you work. I keep these
next to my easel, and I leave them around the painting as
I'm finishing it up. Whenever I'm confused about the
painting or think I'm nearing completion, up go the mat
and frame. This separates the work from the chaos around
it and places it in its own universe. There's a psychology
of completion in viewing a painting framed, and a signature
will also help you look at the piece as though it were done.
Sometimes it is.
|
