I just started working on a painting and already it’s looking pretty good. The problem with this is that it’s too early for this piece to be anywhere near finished. In order to move forward I’m going to have to push the composition and in effect ruin the piece a bit. It’s always a bit scary to do this, but I know in the end it will make the piece stronger.
Do you ever have this with your work? What do you do when the piece starts to look good before it is truly finished?
In gratitude, Nicholas
63 Comments
Hi! I’m
Nicholas Wilton
the founder of Art2Life.
With over 20 years experience as a working artist and educator, I’ve developed a systematic approach that brings authenticity, spontaneity and joy back into the creative process.
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Yes! I often like the first stages of a painting but I know it’s nowhere near finished. There just isn’t enough. Enough paint on the canvas, enough complexity, enough transparency and layering, enough history. I know now that I’m not going to like what I do next, it’s going to get ugly and frustrating. But I just remind myself that it’s part of the process and another opportunity to learn and play and paint. But, yeah, it can be downright painful sometimes!
I actually like what you just did to it!
Thank you so much for articulating this issue. It’s something I constantly struggle with. I am notorious for glorious starts and dismal finishes. The only way I seem to overcome this is to let the painting “rest” after what I perceive is a good start. I notice that the longer (days even) I look at it, the more unfinished it becomes, and the more impetus I have to “bring more to the table.”
Yes having that break to gain objectivity is super helpful…
This is really helpful Nicholas. I find that I stop my painting far too early because I like what I have done and am afraid of losing it. But at the same time I know that it isn’t finished – I haven’t gone far enough with it. It is really helpful, and reassuring to know that you experience the same feeling. I will try to be brave and do as you suggest – make the painting worse, before it gets better.
What gets me is how to know when it’s getting better and how to know when it’s getting worse.
Yes. This is always a struggle.I get precious about what I like. But as you point out we need to sometimes destroy before we can move to a better place compositionally. What is your Instagram name?
art2life_world for teaching and nicholaswilton for my art… thanks for reading..
I struggle with this all of the time!!!!!! Watching this was helpful; it’s time for me to “ruin” some pieces in the studio!
On the other hand… Sometimes a painting IS finished early. I think sometimes we judge the “finished” part by how much effort we have put into it; i.e., “It can’t be done in just a few hours of work, right?!”. But sometimes it can, and we should be able to step back, take a breath and see that.
Thanks for this reminder Louise. Usually this happens for me when I am working on paper, where I can easily over work a piece. I love the rawness of those first marks.
Yes both are true…
Yeah I can agree with that too Louise. That happened recently and everyone was telling me to stop. They were right 😉 But i guess the key here is knowing they are right. If you truely don’t agree then you must keep going until your happy with it like Nicholas is talking about here. Its about how HE feels about it right 🙂
I hark back to one of your pervious posts about leaving a painting for awhile. Rather than wreck a piece I started putting it to one side for a month or so. Or hanging it and living with it unfinished. I get too close to a piece and too attached to areas of it. I can only tell now if something is any good by looking at it again after a long break.
George, I do this too ALL the time
This is so interesting that you share this whole process. In our right mind way would anyone want to purposefully go through this…but those that have had some experience and know their own process can sense this. Hints of what is good is there but the relationship with the process seems to call for more history to be built up or more interactions with the whole dance of problem solving that our creative work can stir up. An not that we want to add more “problems within our lives or in our artwork,” but us as human beings seem to be good at this if we are in in tune to the messy bits that we seem to sort through to get to the end result. I truly start to really fall in love with my work when I have to get intimate and go through a ugly stages as you describe here. The connection becomes real and true. This whole process is hard to share and teach to others. Thank you for putting it so clearly and honest for us.
Laura– you can make it less painful–it is just the process and over time it gets easier… it is how we improve
Totally agree with you…it’s the process and it has gotten easier again thanks for sharing..
I am finding that one of the biggest difference between a less seasoned artist and one who has been working on this awhile is the ability to do exactly what you are talking about. You know that you can “mess” up a painting because you are confident that you can make it “right” again and this process only strengthens your work. Me, not so much. It is my biggest struggle. Only the experience of losing my good work and finding it again will help convince me that I have the ability to build a strong painting. Seems counter intuitive, but it is the process and I thank you for guiding us through the maze!!!
You are right–once you learn the principles you can find your way back super easy–fear lessens.
YES! This is usually when I freeze and don’t progress with a painting, because I”m afraid that I am going to ruin it! Fortunately I now can name this place and move on – it’s when I start to notice the timid little mark making that I know something is amiss.
The problem has been how to bring back the boldness that I started with. This has been my practice this last week, as I have gone back to unfinished work that was almost there…but not complete. It has been very liberating to move these paintings forward and not be so attached to what I thought was almost finished. “Almost finished” is often only a half way completed painting.
well Karuna- hold on to that thought–keep that mindset while you work–write it on your wall! that is what I do !
Your demonstration absolutely shows us how to go ahead and be bold. “Go ahead and wreck it!” I love that! Thank you, Nick.
I was getting one of my art pieces photographed by my professional artist guy…the painting is large, and on brown kraft paper–We were being careful handling it, and I said to him, “The painting is never precious until we finish it! It wasn’t precious while I was working on it!”
Marjorie–I agree— I don’t mind if a finish painting chips some–it is part of it!
I was told by John O’Connol a teacher of mine at Univ. of Utah to not feel like a passage is too “precious”. To take a brave approach and sometimes have to obliterate that bit just to continue and push the painting to it’s best possible being..It is true that I will find passages that work but the rest of the painting is not working. That is when the “fun” begins for me..I mess up the precious bit and it helps me correct design flaws, value flaws whatever I couldn’t or refused to see before because I was so in love with that precious passage. So I am all about the boldness you advocate.
I always have to remember that it is paint and paper or canvas and you can change it. The journey you took is the most important, as you learn, create, be inspired….just feel. We all seem to judge our own work more harshly than the viewer. Thank you Nicholas for your inspiration.
I’ve only been at this for a year. Yesterday I went bold on top of an already decent painting, which took it into a greatly improved demension. There had been a slight dissatisfaction with the original, and an intuition to not settle. The greatest challenge has been to let go of attachment. Yet, we are constantly having to do this in life itself, right?
Yes–now if you are just starting out it helps to get ALL the info to do art–that will help—the mistakes if you can call them that are how you figure it out..
I do this dance about a zillion times with each painting. I try to remember to love the uglies as much as I love the “aha’s” in my work. The good, the bad, the ugly…all a part of the whole. It’s like relationships, we must suffer the pain of colliding desires, beliefs and value judgments in order to grow. We can walk away but what we need to learn comes with us. Still, when the “ahhh, that’s goooood” jumps off the canvas, I love it soooo much I actually have painted around the “sooo goods”. Course that never works. Same in relationships. Anyway, I loved the risk you took by diving into it with new color, new marks. I noticed, once that happened, I saw your piece in a whole new way. And I fell in love with one of the new marks! It’s like telling a hard truth to a beloved…knowing we could be risking the relationship. It advances the dialogue and the relationship if we can stay open to what’s next. Same with our creations.
(I keep noticing how much art is like life…and how aptly named Art2Life is.)
So good.
Yes Phyllis, you are seeing what i am seeing too.. thanks
Love your inspiring words. I can always relate, and am very thankful for your videos. You are much braver with going forward and ‘losing’ what you did that you thought was good! I will do that only when I can become critical of the painting. I think ‘removing ourselves’ from our work is many times when the work really starts to make a difference. Getting to the point where you’re not ‘thinking’ but just painting…
Thanks so much, I’m struggling with this right now.
in some ways I see this question as being about the enjoyment of the process (and the successful visuals that may come from it) verses the hard work of making this enjoyment last longer than just that initial experience… all the way to being captivating : = }
To me, this is the difference between exciting sketches that need to just stay in a sketch book and exciting paintings that can entertain our artistic DNA.
Yeah. I think we all struggle with getting attached to those parts we like and trying to save them while we complete the ‘rest’ of the painting. It pains me to ‘wreck’ those parts. I struggle with this daily.
Yes I find this a hard point especially when I am getting opinions on it where people like it, but I try to get over it by asking myself if I would be happy with it going into the world looking like it does. When I know that I wouldn’t I have given myself permission to change it. My best painting to date I covered over most of what was underneath that I almost liked before, but was so glad I did. That helps me to do it again.
Yes. If it’s not great then it’s rubbish. No in between. So why not wreck it.
Yes. Good point
My bench mark is whether i like having it on my wall. I don’t think I’ve ever done a painting start to finish that worked. They all have at least a couple of rejects under them. It’s a difficult lesson to learn though. Hard to do a painting, knowing you’re going to trash it.
Oh I like that! I have SO many not great paintings. I LOVE knowing that. THANK you
As they say ‘no pain no gain’. I used to struggle with destroying something I particularly liked about a painting, only to eventually realise that when you do you take a great leap forward into a new dimension.
I know you do that now… awesome
This discussion is one that is very close to me as this happens to me almost ALL of the time or at least very often. I seem to get a painting off to a good or great start and things get too good too soon. Then I find myself pussyfooting around the painting or even worse, not doing anything to the painting, being completely stuck as to what to do next. You are 100% right Nick. The only way to finish a painting like this is to be BOLD and take the risk of making it worse in order to make it better in the end. So hard to do and it never seems to get easier. Not for me anyhow. Thank you for talking about this. Really, painting is made up of hundreds if not thousands of little and not so little decisions. It can be exhausting! 😉
Right with you on this Michela. It is exhausting and I find myself going around in circles. You want the painting to talk to you and tell you what it wants to be but it just gives you the silent treatment.
I like how you described this Nick. It is an experience that I have had many times too. I seem to have a couple of boards that have come together quite well, but needed something, so I boldly added, then subtracted, only to find they needed something, so I…. I get stuck in this sometimes. After a few times round the board seems to acquire a vibe that says “you can’t finish me! Ever!” which is disturbing to say the least. I’d love to see you talk about those boards that we just can’t seem to finish sometime.
Yes, I find this to be true many times- we become attached maybe a little too premature. I feel that sometimes ego plays a part in this. And I have to let go.
Hi Nicholas,
This is exactly where I am now with a painting. Thanks for sharing the idea
Of not being afraid of slightly ruining something in order to get it better. I’m going to ty that!
Love your sharing, I always get something from it!
Gail
The toughest thing about painting abstract is knowing what to paint. My best work has come straight from my unconscious, only loosely kicked off by an external inspiration. But this is tenuous and sometimes it just isn’t happening. I’ll spend hours looking at a canvas thinking “I can do this or I can do that” but thinking “so what”. I want to paint and create but it is all so arbitrary and I question every shape, every mark with destructive analysis. Am I alone?
No you are not! Completely understand you!
Hi Nicholas,
Be careful not to be trapped by your normal process. Sometimes a piece of art will coalesce very quickly, and it is done.
That said, this painting is yours, and it is totally your prerogative to keep working on it. I love the way that you made bold marks on the painting while the camera was running—that was a powerful move, and I respect you for that.
I have a suggestion: will you please post the painting when you are done, and in that video, show us a screen capture of the painting at the start of today’s video? It will be very instructive to get your perspective on the whole process, and your hind sight thoughts about the before and after.
Yours in painting,
John
All of a sudden because of your video which I watched yesterday, I realize why a painting I did seems empty. It seemed to be perfectly fine very fast….composition and color were really good however it had no soul. I think when we rework our paintings, more of our soul (intuition) goes into the canvas and then feels right because of the character that shows through. I am ready to get in there and have some fun with it today!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/432f14c1900aea6eb156446bc693e3939fe7fd9a4dee45230a9286104e37b472.jpg This happened to me while doing a commission piece. It was actually the client that pushed me and the final result was great.
Do you have a picture of it before?
Sure do https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f92004097ff94cdadf695b71a6a27bee9c159d201bdf70c9b1dabcca8e0bd0df.jpg
Cool. The reworking is not so drastic but the resulting improvement is immense.
Thanks for the comment. I agree completely.
This happens to me frequently. I am currently collaging into old paintings that are just gathering dust. The underlaying work isn’t bad; and some of it is actually pretty good. But it’s not strong enough or isn’t going anywhere fast. So I have to push the work, using collage elements. I try to remain critical during the process in order to resolve the work. In the end, I’m destroying the original painting, but I get a sense of satisfaction from pushing my own envelope and the work in another direction.
Sometimes I really like the way a painting looks early on but I know that if I can reproduce what I’ve done easily, then it’s not finished. I have to push past the beginning stages to get to a place where the painting becomes it’s own entity, rather than something that I can just make over and over again. You once called this “jumping off the cliff” and I still think about that metaphor. I need to take the jump, where the painting may end up being a little out of control, and then edit it back from there. Thanks for your videos Nick!
yes absolutely! it happens on occasion ..not every time but when it does its exactly like you say. I have to just get it over with so I can move on. Sometimes I let the painting sit a few days until I’m sure and then when i decide to move forward I’m so relieved..like i can breathe again hahaha!
Love that remark about not being timid. Many years ago an artist I knew said something that really stuck with me. “Do whatever you do with confidence”. I am sorry to say, I didn’t get a lot else from her classes but that really stuck with me and has been invaluable to me.
It’s important, but very difficult, to not become attached to a painting at any stage in its development. When things are working and looking really good at early stages it is SO hard to have the courage to dive in and possibly destroy what is there. I usually move on to another painting for a while when this happens to interrupt the attachment with the other one. Then when I re-enter the first one I am less timid with it. I am never sorry in the end, even if I have lost some of what I loved in the beginning.
I totally agree Mary! I also do this, however, I am REALLY stuck on one of my pieces. I have had positive feedback (I just had a solo exhibit) but I am not happy. I now believe, that YOU are the boss of what is on YOUR canvas. I am now in the process of changing it!
Yes! There is a sigh of relief when you “wreck” it.