This week I’ve been finishing paintings.  This is another one of those stages that needs it’s own conversation.

How do you know when you’re finished is one of THE most frequently asked questions, and probably the most difficult to answer.  Well, you just know – you know?

So let’s look at few examples.  Let me walk you through the decisions I made about finishing this week.

Before I do that though, my goal is to allow myself    T  I  M  E    to let a painting sit so that I can revisit it, look long and hard at it – or just give it a fleeting glance every now and then and see if anything starts calling me to make a few tweaks or even bigger changes.

I have two paintings that have spent most of the last year propped up against a wall waiting for me to strip them of their varnish in order to go back in and make some very big, game-changing complete painting-changing tweaks.  Tweaks with a CAPTIAL TWEE!!

The fact that these paintings sit there reminding me of my flip-flopping mind, makes me a little nervous to declare a painting finished, rush it off to the framer and then package it up for a gallery.

I really want to have time to live with it for a while as the final test.  However, poor time management sees me more often than not rushing to the framer and gallery with my fresh new finishers.

OK, so having fessed up that I don’t manage my time for optimum testing to see if a painting is REALLY finished.  How do I go about deciding that perhaps…  maybe it’s possibly…   quite probably finished or…. almost done – nearly?

Well…

1.      I’ve been in the process with the painting for a decent period of time – enough to build a few lumps and bumps on the surface. 

2.      I’m happy with the design – from a distance it’s interesting.  It has variety and I’ve made sure I’m not repeating myself in the work too much eg. Same size shapes, shapes lining up predictably, elements that are very similar…

3.      When I move in close it has surprises.  Little bits of collage peeping through, variety of marks and subtle changes, and transitions in colour and texture.

4.      I’ve rotated it and found it’s best orientation

5.      As well as being complex in areas, there is also clarity and simplicity in others.  I’ve edited it and edited it until it doesn’t feel busy.

6.      There is something about it that I LOVE and that surprises me.  I don’t want to just be repeating myself from painting to painting.  There has to be something DIFFERENT that I love that I’m amazed I managed to do.  I have to feel ‘YES’ when I look at it.

7.      I also want a rawness at the end – I don’t want it to look ‘preened’ and smoothed over – which is what can happen sometimes if you ‘over-finish’.

8.      It has to have a strength and also be extremely subtle and gentle in places.

When it’s got all that, AND there is nothing nagging at me when I look at it – I leave it for a bit (a week? Preferably longer…) and then if there is STILL nothing nagging, I sign it and hope that I’m resolute in that decision.

The other interesting factor about finishing is pertinent to those of us who work in multiples.  Most often as an intuitive artist, my series of paintings all end up quite different.  Each one has gone on a different journey with different colours, design… I never produce 7 paintings that are a variation on a theme. 

As is the case with my latest lot of paintings, I have a standout one that I think is stronger than the others.  To me the colours are more subtle, the design is stronger and the whole painting is ticking all the ‘boxes’ mentioned above better than the other paintings done at the same time.  I’m happy with the other paintings but they are different in character. 

I could pose the question – should I persevere with them until they are like the standout?  But if I was to infuse them with the subtlety that my standout has they would lose their own character, so I’m happy to leave them as they are.  There is still something about them that pleases me – they are just different to the standout. 

Much like comparing brothers and sisters – you can say Johnny sings better than Sally, but you don’t then try and get Sally singing like Johnny – unless perhaps you’re Mr and Mrs BeeGee, perhaps not the best analogy as it worked out quite well for them!

Have you joined the Upbeat Artists Group?  This is a wonderful hoard of supportive artists who share their work, as well as the trials and tribulations of finishing paintings they love.  Come and join us.