When Is a Painting Finished?

When I’m painting a realistic subject, there’s a level of “finish” I aim for – not photo-realism, because I want a painterly quality, and with portrait work, I also want it to look like the person I’m painting. When I reach that stage, it’s done.

Abstract paintings have an energy all their own. At various stages in the work I often feel that if I add another stroke I’ll ruin it. And sometimes I do.

A friend recently asked me how a painting I posted in steps got from A to C looking as if it had not progressed sequentially but had completely changed in places. That happens when I don’t like what I’ve done. I white it out in those areas and start again but forget to take the “whited-out” photo – probably because I’m a little miffed at having messed up.

The 3-on-a-palette theme I’ve been working with has turned out to be great fun, and for this painting I took quite a few in-progress photos. After the first pass, it looked like a fried egg on a ledge.

I knew it needed some vertical shapes, and I also realized that my color palette needed adjusting. I started with Liquitex Soft Body Muted Violet plus Liquitex Naples Yellow, Twilight, and Raspberry. I love the colors but felt I also needed a brighter blue and a warmer red, so I added Liquitex Swedish Blue and Burgundy.

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Is it finished? I think so. It’s signed and not yet titled, but even after signing a painting, I sometimes add a few more strokes. Of the other two paintings on this palette, one is finished, and I forgot to take the in-progress photos. Here are the start and finish of “All Squared Up”…

[image error]  [image error]  [image error] The only thing left of the original is a square on the far left, bottom, where you can vaguely see 3 0vals. The other painting is, I think, in its final stage. At this point, I worried about making another stroke…

[image error] But I made several changes before arriving here… [image error]

“Even a Foggy Day Can Be Fun” needs some touch up before I call it final. All in all, my Muted Violet palette has been challenging as well as liberating, as I worked with colors I’ve never before used. My next challenge is a black-white-gray palette, devoting a full canvas to each color. I’m already calling them, “Basically Black,” “Warmly White” and “Graphically Gray.”

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