Stop before you are done

Coffee and flowers, acrylic on canvas, 16 x12 inches

Something I am trying to incorporate into my painting is learning when to put the brush down.  I am sure many painters struggle with finding the perfect stopping point. 

As artist always see one more spot that needs a touch more color or shape, but will that add to a painting composition or not? 

   Adding one more line or shape really adds two, the area you added and the one that you changed in relation to the other parts of the composition.  That dual change can lead to over working a painting.  It can also completely change the direction of the composition, which can help if it needs a correction.  Taking the time to analyze the changes is sometimes like playing chess.  For me, that can be bad, I don’t have a clue about how to play chess.

    So I have started taking the advice some fellow artists gave me; stop before you are done, and work on more than one painting at a time.  Both tips are great, working on multiple paintings keeps me from over working anyone of them.

  This painting of flowers and coffee, I worked on between two other smaller tree paintings.  When I stopped painting flowers this morning, and left it for the trees, it was not done, but coming back to it this afternoon, I realized there was no more to do, for it said exactly what I wanted it to say; “Good morning have some coffee and enjoy the flowers”.

Here is one of the tree paintings, like this one, the other tree not enough to share.

Two out of three, is not too bad.

Mary

Schiros_Art