Any artist will tell you that it can be difficult to know when a piece of artwork is done. There are artists who work on every painting for years. Yes, years. If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I’ve been struggling over A Surprise in Surprise (now titled “Linger–A Surprise in Surprise”) since last Spring.
Last week I posted photos of two paintings I’d just started as well as a snapshot of the latest “done” state of Linger. Well, I decided to try to finish the two new pieces to submit for consideration for an exhibit in Tucson. I’ve known about the submission deadline for months and months but hadn’t actually created anything within the size limitations or the theme for the show. I forged ahead with gusto. I completed the paintings in time for Jim to photograph them and sent the submission via email, getting it in a full 45 minutes before the deadline (cutting it very close). Having a photographer in residence certainly helps, and Jim was nice enough to drop everything and come to my aid. Here are the results, plus the official final quality photo of Linger.
Here is Agua Caliente completed. You can click above on Beginnings, Middles and Endings to navigate to the last blog to see how the painting has changed.
And here is the nearly unrecognizable second painting in the set. If you check out the previous blog post, you can see how it’s morphed. I just got going and before you know it, it was an altogether different painting.
Where did the dark submerged log go? It's down under lots of layers of paint, I guess.
This just goes to show how much flexibility acrylic painting allows. Sometimes I have a set outcome I’m looking for in a painting and other times what I end up with is radically different than what I started with. Just depends.
And last, Linger. For the last time, I really really mean it this time.
Complete at last– Linger (A Surprise in Surprise)