A few weeks ago my husband and I visited the tulip fields.
I was so inspired by the colours, textures and lines of blooms, that I came home and immediately created a huge stack of printed papers.
(I wrote a blog post about this a few weeks back; go and see the Petite Paper Paintings that resulted!).
Usually, when I finish with the week’s collage papers, I toss them in my scraps tub and and move on to a new colour palette and theme.
This time, however, I was so taken with the leftovers, I felt the urge to use them on a larger piece.
My ‘plan’ (not that I ever really have a plan, other than a planned process…), was to cover a 24 x 24 inch board with the remaining papers, paint over the papers, let the paint dry and sand back into the surface to create an interesting place to START a new painting.
After three days of cutting, pasting and layering, my husband walked into the studio and said, “Wow! That piece is amazing! Don’t do anything else to it. It’s gorgeous as it is!”
My response? “What are you talking about? This is the base layer of a painting. I’m going to cover it all up and let bits of it show later. We artists, call this an UNDERPAINTING.”
His mumbled reply? “… the shit artists make up…”. LOL!
While I was initially annoyed with him (and vowed, once again, to ban him from the studio…), I walked away from the exchange asking myself why. Is it possible that he’s right? The piece is finished? Even though it’s not what I initially set out to do?
Upon further reflection, I realize that my immediate response stemmed more from having absorbed a ‘lesson’ about the relationship between the quality of a painting and the amount of time it took to create. Many of my online teachers and fellow artists paint in many, many layers that often take weeks to apply (and remove). There’s a general sentiment that ‘quick’ art isn’t ‘serious’ or ‘good’.
In my own studio practice, I’ve certainly noticed that some paintings come to completion more quickly than others. Why then, should I insist upon going further with something that so many others (many of the online friends and artists I shared this exchange with sided with my husband 😉 ) love as it is?
I know that ultimately, it’s up to the artist to decide when their work is done, but what if we don’t recognize it? Or are caught up in this assumption that longer equals better?
What about the idea that there are many end points in an abstract work of art? And the artist has only chosen one to stop at….
For now, I’m going to sit with this piece. It’s hanging on my studio wall, informing some smaller works in progress. I think I will take it with me to the Art Shuffle (June 14th, 4 to 9 pm, details on my social media accounts and in my new email newsletter) as an example of a painting that was inspired by the 5 x 5 inch Painted Paper Pieces I’ll have on display (all 100 of them!).
