Resolving an Unfinished Piece of Painting; Process and Looking

'The Land was Alive with the Sound of the River,' acrylic on canvas, 80 x 40 cm

This painting went through many changes until I decided to let it stand. Too many unnecessary elements kept forcing their way in and what I wanted was to leave the green as a presence with incidents running across it like a river. So I erased pieces of painting to recover some areas of simplicity. The title refers to the way that I feel that colours have a 'sound.'  I always remind myself that there is rarely perfection, just a glimpse of something that has meaning and mystery and can be explored on the next canvas.

I'm sitting here with 2 canvases in front of me that I'm trying to resolve and glancing at them in between writing. I find that more and more I spend a lot of time looking at work, or I leave it for a while to be considered if I am not sure how to proceed. Sometimes I work over paintings very fast, destroying most of the colours and shapes until I find the forms and colours needed. These 2 troublesome paintings have been through several incarnations over the last 3 months. 

Below is one of them. I feel that I need to sort out the lower third of the painting and also the left side. I want a slightly more gradual transition of colour. One of the reasons I usually leave a problem painting for a few days is to get a more objective view of it. Just a few days away from staring at it obsessively can be enough to let the actual distracting parts stand out. Sometimes after some hours of working, I am too emotionally connected to see the work as a stranger might.

'Stepping Through Colour,' acrylic on canvas, 70 x 50 cm

Painting needs so much patience! Not every painting can take the same path; some arrive quickly and surprisingly, some can take months, and I've gone back to work even years later if something sticks out as irrelevant or wrong. I learn from all and constantly reassess what works and why and how to take the best elements from my work and try to extend them each time. I feel that it is like casting a net and pulling in different sparkling items which I then chose to keep or throw. 

This has been one of my busiest and hottest months! I've booked my ticket to go to China on August 28th for the Beijing International Art Biennale, as an invited artist (accommodation and expenses covered) and I have been shortlisted to speak at the symposium. I always told myself that if I ever got the chance to speak at an international event, I would bite the bullet and give it a go. My proposed speech is on the theme of my painting and also covers the theme of the Biennale, 'A Colourful World and a Shared Future.' I timed my speech and it is just over 4 minutes. I'd rather it was short and to the point. In case I am selected I now have to prepare a PowerPoint presentation. 

'A Traveller's Story,' acrylic on wooden panel, 89 x 41 cm

Here is my most recent painting which is on a piece of wooden panel I bought very cheaply at a local store as it was about to be thrown! I found the surface really nice to paint on and experimented with thin glazes of colour over white and thicker, dripped colour. Transparent versus opaque. It reflects my feeling of being a Traveller through stories that emerge from the act of painting. It is also an example of a painting that I am very glad I stopped work on and left for a few days. I was actually going to work on it further but on second glance decided that was going to make it in to a different painting. So the choice was; do you want a new painting or does this actually say something? I felt it did.