I have a few binders of work that I originally wanted to throw away. The reason? I mostly work on series. These have to follow a certain concept or thought. If a work does not fit in, it will be sorted out.
This work is from 1988 when I was working on a portrait series. Now that I haven’t seen it in many years, I’m glad I didn’t throw it away.
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Thank you so much! Not so amazing, maybe, but I kept less good ones 🙂 Since you are an artist too – you sure experienced that there is a difference between you as artist and audience when it comes to “what is good”.
I’ve experienced that, too. I found a painting last year I’d done years earlier and put away as crap and it wasn’t. Right now I’m in a little bit of an existential quandary as an artist. I don’t want to be a western artist. I never wanted that, but I live in the Great American West at this point in my life and it is beautiful and inspiring. AND I have had small commissions and sales for that kind of work (of course).
But, at the moment, all my work just seems kind of ho-hum and like everyone else’s. I was thinking of this yesterday in relation to your “emptiness” post. I did a couple of serious paintings over the last 12 months. I think they exhausted or fulfilled THAT moment which is now over. Whatever I learned from that is simmering in this moment of emptiness.
A Facebook friend (artist) posted one of her paintings in progress. It was Montana’s sky with a full moon behind clouds. It was beautiful. She asked for suggestions. The usual came out “Cabin! Horses! A cowboy on a horse!” and all I could think was, “It’s finished.” I was enchanted by the emptiness, how the landscape and sky are all the time whether someone is looking at them or not. It had the silent intimacy of that place. Ultimately she put a bunch of horses in, painted the tops of the mountains white and added smoke from a cabin in the distance — made it a cliché (in my opinion). It was interesting stepping back and observing my response to her work, interesting and informative.
I need to get out of here for a while but I don’t know where or when, or, for the moment, how.
Thank you Martha, for sharing your thought! Very funny – again we are scratching the same question – when is a painting finished. The other day I found a good article on this topic, maybe you know it anyway: https://www.jacksonsart.com/blog/2015/09/08/is-my-painting-finished/?fbclid=IwAR37MCZCbnYJRR3HlUv3ufopM6SS6L4m_9aBkcjPs3Ru3K06pa5NwwYUn48
As for your “my work just seems kind of ho-hum and like everyone else’s”: well, that`s “part of the game” I think Like walking trough dense wood and then, all of a sudden, a small path shows up that leads us back into the bright, sun-drenched landscape.
There’s a lot in that article. Thank you. I was intrigued by the “subconscious” idea — so I’m writing about it.
https://marthakennedy.blog/2021/06/08/painting-and-the-subconscious-mind/
The comments about a painting being finished — that’s wonderful. For me it’s the question, “Is this what this painting wants to be?” I stop there.
But I love this, ““A fine suggestion, a sketch with great feeling, can be as expressive as the most finished product” – Eugene Delacroix.” When I was doing all those drawings, struggling with the horses, realizing that all I had to do was to capture their motion and I would have a horse? That was the exciting part of the project. Some lines (even in ink) were faint and I left them that way. You do a lot of gesture work and I love that. Life is, basically, a chain of gestures.
Thanks for your link! Nice work. I think I know what you’re talking about and can only fully agree. When is a work done? For me, a work is finished when my underlying idea and concept have been presented. Of course, objective aspects play a role, but mastering the craft is anyway a basis that is beyond doubt.
As for the horses: I also painted Pfere for some time and will soon be showing them in a post. I’m currently working on a series about dragons that I want to show next week. Dragon sounds easier than horse – that’s probably true in many ways ..
never throw away a painting too soon,as many other things, I did and regret. Better, wait and see.Who was this woman,so mysterious, I would like to aks for more portraits.
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