Some feel daunted by a blank page or a clean canvas. I rather like it. A bit too comfortable, perhaps, with the possibility of what could be written or could be painted, I enjoy hanging around ready-to-go canvases and pristine new notebooks. Is the prepping stage where you tend to stop?
Then it appears. An image or a thought or a color or a phrase and I take the plunge into marking the open space. To jot it down, or get the first layer on, it feels good to bemoving, starting at least. Is starting where you tend to stop?
Then more words, more layers of color take shape. But how many? How do we know that it’s done? Knowing when to stop is one place I tend to stop.
Arts writer, Paul Gardner, is quoted to have said, “A painting is never finished – it simply stops in interesting places.” I wish that helped. What if the next addition makes it more interesting? Or, what if it was actually more interesting one step back? An artist can drive herself crazy thinking to much about all this.
The solution? Just to paint, to write, and to listen to what the heart and hand have to say about when things are complete. You’ll know. The piece will know. Give it time, give it space, give it attention and give yourself a break.
That’s the advice I practice taking!
