This is a small painting, a 9″ by 12″ canvas, that I just finished. If someone were to ask me how long it took to finish I would have to anwer that it took over a year. Quite a long time for such a little piece.
Actually I finished most of it a little over a year ago and found myself kind of painted into a corner. I like what I had painted thus far but the mound that dominated the center seemed too tall for the proportion of the whole painting and I just couldn’t see how it could be finished in a manner that would be satisfying. So I hesitatingly put it aside.
For a year or so it has sat on a cabinet next to my painting table until this past week when I thought it had been there too long, just sitting in my line of sight whenever I turned. It was a persistent reminder of a failed attempt and the time had come to end the nagging feeling it cast on me. I would finish it and one way or another be done with it, satisfied or not.
So I painted in the tree and touched up the clouds a bit. No expectation of anything. Just get it done.
But to my surprise it worked. The proportion seemed okay with the tree, much different than I had seen it in my head for the past year, and the painting seemed suddenly to pop. There was a rush of satisfaction through me. It was so much more than I had hoped, far exceeding the expectations that had diminished over the year. I had only seen it with one result when it had a much better result hiding in plain sight.
Like many things, there are often results that can exceed our expectations if we just go ahead with our plans and finish them, not putting them aside before they reveal their true potential to us.
Redtree Times 