Prophesy

So, something of self-fulfilling prophesy occurred recently. In my February blogs (Energised and Doubts and Persistence) I wrote about knowing when to stop. One of the paintings I wrote about, and thought was finished in February, I have reworked again, again! The three main versions are below. I was never comfortable with the thing and just plodded on, changing this and changing that, losing this and losing that, but keeping in mind the three dream colours I had been using, lilac, green and brown. It's a case of trying again and again if needed. And there's no guarantee you won't waste hours and hours, as well as paint. But the emergence of shapes, colours and motifs is only possible through reworking, obliterating, layering, scraping off, and repainting again. That's how paintings can seem to have a momentum of their own, and when hidden imagery finally appears it is often a pleasant surprise. Of course this doesn't always work, but this time I have finished the painting to my satisfaction. It is almost unrecognisable now, just a few traces or remnants of its previous incarnation remaining. It is very minimal, which I'm happy with, and with a rich-salmon pink against the brown. But is it an improvement or not. Is it any better? I prefer it and even like it up to a point, but in March I was doubting my judgement as to its quality because I was too closely wrapped up in it. 

Now, though, looking back freshly at the final version in April, I like its solid minimalism a lot and its three large coloured shapes work well in an unfussy way. The downside is that the other two versions shown below are lost, something every painter has to deal with, especially when we have so many photographs of works in progress which present themselves occasionally, and which can plant doubts about decisions made. OMG!! Why did I paint over that! It's difficult!