Considering how normally rebellious we are, we surprised ourselves by doing our homework—okay, with two exceptions, but that's not too bad for our group! As you may recall, we were to paint something ... anything ... from life. We want to compare that painting with our more typical pieces and see if there's a difference in the two. So let the viewing begin.
We start with Greeta ("Fruit changed my life"), of course, as she's our inspiration for this challenge. Each artist's life painting comes first, followed by their current works (whether from life, a photo or imagination). See what you think. You may also notice that we had some interesting pairings of orchids and self-portraits—coincidence? You be the judge.
While you're viewing, keep your eye peeled for a little painting humor ... besides the purple cow, of course. Elaine T. has begun painting things that remind her of other things. What do flying geese remind you of? And at the end, hear our thoughts on today's question of the week, "How do you know when your painting is finished?"
How do you know when you're finished?
The answer of the day seemed to be "Ask Greeta." But of course that's not always possible, so we had to ponder some more. After all, at some point, we do put our brushes down, call a painting "finished" and move on. But as you can see, we have differing styles and different states of finish before we reach that point. How do we know?
Most of us fall somewhere between the two extremes of Mark, a notoriously "alla prima" painter who stops when he runs out of time, and Ken, a surprisingly process-oriented painter, who sometimes revisits paintings many times after pronouncing them complete.
Some of us, like Alan, just know. Tony stops when it's all finished to the same level and looks all of a piece. Susan starts with a vision and stops when her last brushstroke completes that vision. It just "feels" right to them.
For almost all of us, there comes a point where we suspect we may be finished. Whether we "start to lose interest," like Elaine T. or "start using really tiny brushes," like Sara, we stop. Most of us prop our paintings up in places where we're likely to happen upon them as we walk by. Steve looks to see if his colors pop the way he wants them to. Greeta and Ellen check the values. And most of us feel like Elaine O., we're finished when nothing jumps out at us and anything else we do either won't add anything—or will actually mess things up.
Of course, there is also Ken's school of thought on the matter—it's not done until it's overdone. Sadly, some of us only discover we were finished when we go one step beyond where we should have stopped. It happens!
Join us next week as we think about what we'd really like to paint ... but haven't.
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