"The Rogue and the Misfit"

'The Rogue and the Misfit" was one of the paintings I posted while I was on my painting trip. I made a few adjustments before I framed it up that are worth showing. The color in the photo is a little more accurate also. I re-posted the original photo again so you can compare them both.


"The Rogue and The Misfit", 8" x 10" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
$720. Framed. Available at Galeria Gardner


"The Rogue and The Misfit" before adjustments, Frank Gardner © 2008

There was no need to change much, but a few small adjustments in the right spots can make a world of difference sometimes.
Notice the slight difference in the black rigging on the back of the blue boat, the "Rogue". You can compare the position and angles to the piling of the pier, which was not adjusted. There were a few adjustments made to the buildings and trees on the left side as well. The blue barrels on the right side of the pier had a shadow color added and the "Rogue" also was darkened just a bit in the shadow. I may have drawn a crisper white line along the stern on the far side of the "Misfit" too.

I have been working on studies for some commission paintings, but I am not ready to post any of that just yet. Hopefully in the next day or two I can show you some of what I am working on.

"Rock Harbor Pair"

This was the first painting that I did on my trip to the Cape.
These two boats were tied up in Rock Harbor, in Orleans.
The day started out nice enough, but clouded up fast and got pretty windy. The tide was going out and dropped pretty fast.
For me at least.
Not used to that.
The light totally changed on me when the rain clouds moved in from behind me. I almost chased it but caught myself doing it and managed to hold onto the light of the earlier, sunnier skies.


"Rock Harbor Pair", 11" x 14" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
$950. Framed. Available at Galeria Gardner

"Orleans Number Two"

This was painted on the beach in Orleans, Ma. on Little Pleasant Bay. I believe it was a wildlife sanctuary of some sort on this side of the inlet. There were just a few adjustments that I needed to make to it the next day.


"Orleans Number Two", 8" x 16" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
$930. Framed. Available at Galeria Gardner



Detail of "Orleans Number Two", Frank Gardner © 2008

"The Lobster Pot"

The Lobster Pot Restaurant is one of my favorite Provincetown landmarks.
This painting was done from a photo reference on one of the rainy evenings during my trip to Cape Cod. I had really hoped to get back to Ptown to do some street scenes, but the weather kind of went sour on us. That should not have kept me from painting outside, but we just were not up for getting wet in a cold rain.
I need an umbrella.


"The Lobster Pot", 11" x 14" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
$950. Framed. Available at Galeria Gardner


Reference photo for "The Lobster Pot", Frank Gardner © 2008


My friend Jack Riddle was talking about painting from photos on his blog the other day and suggested that I might write a few of my thoughts about that.

Here goes.

I always feel like I am taking a big risk when I post the reference photo next to my painting or a photo of the scene with the painting. Will all of my "mistakes" stand out like sore thumbs.

There are so many things to consider when using a photo reference. I could go on and on about pros and cons. One big con is that the values are usually a bit off. The darks are too dark and or the lights are too light and washed out. One pro is that it does not move and the light does not change, but that can be a con too.

Something I take into consideration when working from a photo is the look and or feel that I am aiming for in the finished piece. How much detail will I try and put into it. The problem with working from photos in the studio is that you can just keep going and going, adding in every little thing until it is really tight and probably over worked. It becomes a matter of taste and style.

The look that I decided on for this one was a solid design with a loose plein air feel. This was a plein air trip after all, and I wanted this painting to fit in well when hung together with the rest of the stuff from the trip.
I'm sure that this scene would look just as good if I had done a tighter job and brought it up to a more detailed finish, but that is not what I wanted in this particular painting.
By solid design I mean a strong pattern of light and shadow. Little details that are not real important can be edited out. Kind of like when I am plein air painting. Get the basic light and shadow pattern down first, add variety of color to the large value pattern, work up the detail in the center of interest. Get the important stuff down first, and then you can stop at any point.

The first thing that I did was evaluate two photos that I had of this street scene and chose the one that best suited my needs. I wanted the Lobster Pot to be the main interest, but the people are also an important part of Provincetown, so I wanted to feature them too. Couples walking, someone with a bike, that is all part of what makes it real. I liked having the building on the left to frame the street, but I did not want to add detail there that would take away from the Lobster Pot.

The neon sign is such an icon. I wanted to show it, but I did not want so much detail in it that it would hold the eye and not allow for movement in the painting. What I tried to get was the color and glow without even putting in any letters. It was one of the first things that I painted in. Almost pure cadmium red, thin enough to get the glow from the white tone of the linen showing through. Then I concentrated on just blocking in all of the shadow colors. I wanted to keep them lighter than what I was seeing in the photo. I tried to get a lot of variety in my colors but keep them all in a simple value range. I wish that I had taken some progress shots to help explain how I went about this.

Since I had determined that this would be a loose piece, working fairly fast was key. I approached it as if I was standing there on the corner trying to catch the important stuff first and fast. The big picture. When you see the reference photo along with the finished painting, it is easy to pick out little things that I did not include or may have drawn a little off, but is that detail important to the statement as a whole? Not for ME in THIS painting.
I'll try and point out a few examples of what I mean by lack of detail. Take a look at the budweiser sign. Did you know that it was a bud sign without having the words written out? O.K., my lobster may look a bit like a little red dog, but I bet that anyone that know Ptown knows that it is the lobster Pot. How about the tree? There could be a lot of picking at that and spotty leaves painted in, but the simple light/ shadow pattern works good enough in this case. The two figures in shadow walking in front of the restaurant. Can you tell that is two women? or at least feel the gesture of two figures walking casually? Good enough then. I think that the storefront windows behind them has just enough detail to know there is something in the window. When you stare at a photo you may be tempted to put in more and more in a thing like that.

I did not start adding any light family colors until I had a solid drawing down of color in shadow and most of it all linked together into a big pattern. Then I quickly laid in the light family colors. I put them in thick and then even scrapped some back off because texture always comes forward. I left the thicker stuff for the foreground and mid ground. I really had to rein in my urge to keep adding detail at this stage. My natural tendency is to make it all perfect. I wanted this to look like it could have been done on location in one go, so I stopped while I thought it still looked fresh. Could I have done some things differently? Sure. But each painting has to be thought of as an expression of your feelings. This is how I felt about it on this day. If I did it again today I might have a totally different set of colors and criteria.

That's all I'll write on my thoughts on this piece, and painting from photos for now. I'll probably end up expanding on this in the comments anyway. Thanks Jack for thinking that I might have some skills to share here. I'll work on some other posts along the same lines.

If anyone is still reading at this point, thanks.
I usually don't write such long winded posts.

"Blue Skies, Blue Ocean"

This is one of the paintings that I posted during my painting trip. It is one of the ones that needed a little adjustment back in the studio. The rigging on the boats was slightly off, especially that one line on the left that was curving up when it should have gone straight or curved slightly in from the weight. The only other change was to darken the values of the shadow sides just a bit. You can tell if you look at the distant water between the two boats. That value stayed the same.
The color in the photo of the finished painting is more accurate as well.
I am much happier with the finished piece.
I'll re post how it looked when I stopped work on the dock, as well as the set up, so you can compare the two.


"Blue Skies, Blue Ocean", 11" x 14", Frank Gardner © 2008
$950. Framed. Available at Galeria Gardner


First Version "Blue Skies, Blue Ocean", 11" x 14", Frank Gardner © 2008


The set up on the docks in Provincetown.

It was real fun painting out on the pier in Provincetown. It is amazing how fast the tide makes the boats go up and down.
The other great thing about painting boats is that they usually have names that make for good titles and I don't have to struggle too hard to come up with one. Yes, they are called the Blue Skies and the Blue Ocean.

"The Constance Sea"

The colors of this boat set against the colors of the sand and ocean really attracted me to this scene. The reflection was an added bonus. Those of you who have done plein air paintings of boats, or water, know that reflections come and go and change quite often.


"The Constance Sea", 8" x 10" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
Private Collection


The toned canvas was a wipe out from the day before. It worked perfectly in this painting since it was pretty much the color of the sand.

This boat, "The Constance Sea", is in Chatham, Ma.
After painting the "Little Dinghy" I turned around in the same spot. I even got to keep my bare feet in the same cool hole that I had dug them into for the other piece. Painting on the beach is great. The sun had dropped quite a bit and the light was just right.

"Little Dinghy"

The simplicity of this dinghy pulled up on the beach was what attracted me to paint this one.


"Little Dinghy", 8" x 10" oil on board, Frank Gardner © 2008
$720. Framed, available at Galeria Gardner

We had a wet finish to my week on Cape Cod. It cut down on some of our outdoor painting time, but it gave me a chance to make some slight adjustments on a few of the paintings back in the studio.
I completed nine paintings and had to sign and title them, get the frames all wired up and take some quick photos of the finished paintings. I left them all out there at my friend Jerome Greene's gallery in Dennis, so I had to have everything ready to leave with him on my way off the Cape.

Some Paintings from the Trip

In case you have been wondering what I have been up to, here is a quick upload of a few of the plein air paintings from this week. I'll just post sizes of these. When I get a chance to sign them and decide on titles, I will re post them all. There are more paintings,photos and stories to tell, but I don't want to put too much time into this right now. I am here to paint.


"East Dennis Marsh", 8" x 16" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
$930. Framed. Available at Galeria Gardner


"The Rogue and The Misfit", 8" x 10" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
$720. Framed. Available at Galeria Gardner



"The Wreck", 8" x 10" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
$720. Framed. Available at Galeria Gardner



My setup and subject on the pier in Provincetown.



"Blue Skies, Blue Ocean" in progress, 11" x 14" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
$950. Framed. Available at Galeria Gardner

Two more reviews by Elijah

Elijah, has posted two more reviews of my paintings on his site, Art and Critique.
You can read them here and here.
Thanks to all of you who took the time to read the first one.

Review of my work by Elijah - Art and Critique

The weather here in upstate New York has been great the last two days, and I have been enjoying the visit with my family.
Coming from a semi desert life in Mexico, spring in New York and New England is a treat.
I head over to the Cape tomorrow for a week.

Elijah Shifrin has written a review of my work on his art and critique web site. Please click here. to read the first review.

Ancha de San Antonio

This scene may seem familiar to you. It is based on a photo from the Day in the Life of Me post from a few weeks ago, a view heading into the center part of town.


"Ancha de San Antonio", 11" x 14" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
$950. Framed, Available at Windrush Gallery, Sedona, AZ

I'll be flying north tomorrow for a two week painting trip. I'll spend a big part of it on Cape Cod painting with some good friends Peter Kalill, Jerome Greene and Paul Schulenburg.

I can't remember the last time I painted up there in the spring. I usually go up in late summer or fall. It should be a good challenge to catch the distinct color and light of spring in New England.

The Hudson River Valley will probably pop up in a few paintings as well, you never know.
I'll be bringing "My Paint Box" with me, and hope to get at least a few posts up while I am gone. So please keep checking in.

"Church View"

You may have figured out where this wall that I have been painting the figures is, if you looked at one of the first posts on My Paint Box. It is at the end of this side street in Atotonilco.

In this painting, and this one, I wanted the figures to stand out against the simple design of the street and walls, so the church is left out. In "Church View", the church is the subject, not just the figure. There is a little more detail in this painting than in the sketch. I wanted to emphasize the beautiful design of the church, however a lot of the detail is still suggested.
This painting is based on a plein air piece that I did during my last workshop.


"Church View ", 11" x 14" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
Private Collection


Plein air sketch, 8" x 10" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008

I was happy with most of the painting done on location, but the design was rushed, and ended up being too cramped at the top. I had to squash down the main dome of the church to make it fit. Otherwise it would have run off the top of the panel just a bit, and that would not have worked design wise either. I thought about trying to fix this plein air, but it just could not be adjusted. It was easier to re visit the idea in a new painting. The sketch will not be for sale. It is one of those that are just a learning experience, good for use in the studio. Some of the proportions I corrected with the help of a photo. The values were off in the photo, so I followed the sketch on that.

"Thorns"

This wall in shadow is a nice setting to isolate this solitary figure against.
It's the same place as in this painting.


"Thorns", 8"x 10" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
Private Collection

This guy is carrying thin branches from a mesquite tree. He will bend them, while they are still green and pliable, into crowns of thorns. Then dry them.

You may wonder why a lot of the figures in my paintings are walking away. I think that it ads to the movement by having them walking into the scene as opposed to out of it at me. That would be a much more static pose. Most of the time I would rather have the viewer being led into my painting.

A Day in the Life, of Me

Alicia tagged me with a new meme to describe a typical day of mine. You can see her post here.

Part of what I love about my job is that each day is different. Being my own boss allows me to do whatever I want, usually. Sometimes I take a break from art and work on our house. Sometimes there are a lot of errands to run and I don't get much work done at all. Having a 5 year old is the curve ball. You never know what will happen and change all plans. This is what today looked like. I'll try and spice it up with some photos, because it is really not that exciting.

6:00 AM- Wake up.

6:15 - 7:00 - Put on water for coffee and start up the ol' Powerbook.
Fresh grind coffee beans and while coffee is slowly brewing check emails and catch up on news and a few blogs maybe.
I pour water through my cone coffee filter a little at a time so my coffee is strong enough to stand a paint brush up in it.
A coffee machine lets the water go through too fast, so I don't get the nice strong brew that I love.
This is VERY important. If the coffee is not done right, it could ruin my whole day.


The Elixir

7:00 - 7:45 - Drink the coffee. Make school lunch. Wake up Erin. Get her breakfast ready, and then try and get her to eat it.
Julissa takes Erin to school.

7:45 - 8:30 - Shower, breakfast, answer any new emails, anything else I can squeeze in.

8:30 - This is the variable part. Today I went and visited with some clients.
Usually I walk into town, about two miles, and open the gallery. Sometimes I have someone watching the gallery and I can stay home and paint, go out and paint or take care of other business.


The usual walk into town.

12:00 - Head back into town from my visit to pick Erin up from school.

12:35 - Erin gets out of school. Get hug and kiss. Today she walked to the car backwards.

12:45 - 2:00 PM - Stop in front of the gallery to drop Erin off with Julissa and go park car. Walk to gallery and hang out with the girls. Go with Erin to buy some fish for lunch, then around the corner to the little store to buy a snack.


That is the gallery on the left. The little yellow building next to the blue doors.

2:00 - 4:00 PM - We eat our big meal of the day in the afternoon. Julissa cooks most of the time, I do the meal once in a while. I play with Erin or do other stuff. Skype with my parents every day, usually during or just before our lunch. For those who do not know, Skype is a free video call through the internet.

4:00 - 7:00 PM - This is a variable time too. I either go back to work or try and play with Erin so Julissa can work. Today I download photos from this morning's visit and wrote the rest of this blog post. Erin plays while the parents work.


Erin

7:00 - 8:30 or 9:00 PM - Have a light dinner, get bath water ready for Erin. Julissa usually gives her the bath, but I try to once in a while. Maybe some books before bedtime. Kid asleep.

9:00- 11:00 -12:00 AM- Catch up on internet, blogs, watch some t.v. over the top of my laptop. rest.

12:00- 6:00 AM - Sleep. Wake up to yell at dogs for barking. Sleep.

6:00 AM - Start all over.

Now I am supposed to tag a few people to share a day in their lives. I asked Eric yesterday if he wanted to join and he beat me to the post. You can see his post here.
I also asked Elizabeth and she has agreed.
I don't want to bother anyone with more tags, but if any of you want to do it just post me a comment.

Now I'll start working on the post I was going to do for today :)

P.S. ( 5/16/08 ) Mike Rooney has also been tagged and agreed to post a day in his life.

"Hard at Work II"

You may remember this composition from Another Grab Bag Palette. This one is the same design, larger canvas, and back to my normal palette.



"Hard at Work II", 14" x 18" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
Private Collection

What I was really missing in that grab bag was yellow. Now I was able to paint the yellow flowers along the back and the yellow bag. The first version really helped me get the design and drawing down. Working in series is always a good way for me to stay loose. I knew I had the other, so I was able to take some chances on this one. I did not feel like I needed to get into too much detail.



Detail, "Hard at Work II" , Frank Gardner © 2008



Detail, "Hard at Work II" , Frank Gardner © 2008

Colin Page

And now for something completely different.

Working on some larger paintings has cut into my blogging/ posting time, so I am going to post about someone else.

Colin Page is a painter who's work I admire. He lives in Maine and paints mostly from life. Colin paints a lot of plein air landscapes and some excellent still lives and interiors as well.
I first ran into Colin's work in Maine, while up there painting with some friends, and I saw several of his paintings in a gallery.
Last fall, I found his web site and on line journal and we have become friends through the internet. I hope that we can get together this summer somewhere on the east coast and paint.
I would like to introduce some of his work to those of you who may not have seen it before.


"Lobster Boat Color Study" 10" x 12", Colin Page


One of the things that I like most about Colin's work his use of color. He does not hesitate to throw in some bright yellows, greens, purples. Like in this piece with the yellow sky.
He is also pretty prolific which is really the best way to improve painting skills. I tell him he needs a kid or two to slow him down a bit to give the rest of us a chance.
His brushwork is loose and confident, and the draftsmanship is right on the money. I have yet to watch him paint, but I can tell that he jumps right in there without a bunch of aimless poking around. He puts down a stroke of paint and just leaves it alone.


"Trawler with Gulls" , 12" x 16", Colin Page


His journal is kind of like a blog, but you can't post comments. However, you can email him by clicking on the contact information on his web site. At the bottom of each post there is a link that will take you to a previous post or you can use the archive list along the right. There have been a few good posts lately that deal with beauty in art and what makes great art different than just average art. See here here and here.


Still life , Colin Page

He shows his paintings in quite a few galleries on the east coast. Here is a link to some more of his work at the Dowling Walsh Gallery in Rockport, Maine where he will be having a show in June.


"Red and White Buoys", Colin Page

How Long Did it Take You to Paint That?

Last week I was able to get lots of quality painting time in the studio. There are some larger canvases in the works and a few small ones. I took a break from blogging so I could concentrate on the paintings and do some family stuff this weekend.



"Another Dusty Road", 30" x 40" Oil on Canvas
Frank Gardner © 2008
Private Collection


I have been working on this painting off and on for about a year and a half. That is about as long as I have ever worked on one piece. I had done a 14" x 18" painting of this scene two years ago and thought that it would make a great larger painting. This one started out strong and then I ran into some trouble. I moved some things around a bit, struggled with the light, etc. etc...It just wasn't looking how I could see it in my mind.
I decided to set it aside for a while and just live with it in different spots around our house. It has been back up in the studio several times over the past 18 months. Sometimes it came back downstairs looking worse than when it went up. Other times it came down looking better, but still needing a little work. After the talk about finish in my last few posts, I decided it was time to wrap this one up.
The first painting sold right away, so I did not have it around while painting the large one.



"Dusty Road", 14" x 18" Oil on Board, Frank Gardner © 2006
Private Collection


It is hard to keep a painting looking fresh when you need to keep making adjustments to get things looking how you want. I think that just walking away from this one once in a while kept me from overworking it. It is in a frame now and looks good. I may need to tweak just a few things now that I see it down at the gallery and posted here.
I like certain things about the small version better and some things about the larger one better.
The jury is still out on this one.

WIP - The Finished Painting

"Put your brushes down and step away from the canvas"
The voice echoed in my head like a cop on a loud speaker.
"Who, me? Just one more thing."



"Untitled" , 24" x 30" oil on canvas, Frank Gardner © 2008
$3,100. Available at Old Town Gallery, San Jose del Cabo

With some painting time at home this weekend and yesterday, I was able to finish the work in progress (WIP) from the other day.
I shouldn't post WIPs.
This is the post with the first stages.

Oh, I also struggle with titles sometimes. I'll post a title for this piece soon. Can't think of an appropriate one right now.

"You can never achieve perfection" Emile Gruppe

So how does one know when to stop?
I often tell students that I would rather see something painted slightly wrong, but with confidence, than something painted to perfection but with a look of labored fussiness. It's just that I don't always practice what I preach.

There were a lot of really great comments and thoughts on my last post. Thanks to everyone for sharing your thoughts and opinions on this. I'd like to borrow a few bits and pieces from all the comments to share here.

"Fuss over the details."
"messed up something that was just fine."
Seems like a lot of us have been there, done that.



"Second Wind, Spruce Head", 11" x 14" oil on board, 2008
$950. Framed, Available at Galeria Gardner

Stepping away from the piece to come back with fresh eyes seems to be a common way to try and control the urge to over work.

Speaking of which, here is the other Maine painting that I started last October, but just came back to with fresh eyes to make a few adjustments. It is of the same boat, "Second Wind", that I wrote about before. Some old wooden lobster boats in Maine have a sail in the back that allows the captain to do all of the labor by himself. Steer and haul pots. Amazing! He is swinging into the same dock as in the last post to unload his pots at the end of the season.

O.K., back to the main point. I told you I get distracted.

Seeing the finished painting in your mind, before you start, is also a good idea. You need to have some sort of idea of what you want to achieve right from the get go.

Here is a good quote by Emile Gruppe, from "Gruppe on Color".

"When I paint outdoors, I've always liked to let the paint do some of the work. I go for the big effect; and when I get it, I let the rest go. Of course, I can still remember my father telling me "try taking it a bit further." But I always felt that if I did, I'd ruin the spontaneity and excitement of what I had in the first place. After all, it's possible for a thing to be well drawn and so systematically developed that the essence of the subject is lost.
Here's the important difference between tight and loose painting: tight, meticulous work can be copied- even a reasonably clever student could do it. But loose, spontaneous work is full of accident and inspiration. And great paintings done in this manner can never be duplicated- the painter himself doesn't know how he got some of his effects. All he knows is the he was outdoors. Something happened to him. He saw differences; he felt the shadows and the textures- and put them down. Such painters see their pictures even before they begin them- as if in a dream. The subject hits them hard. When they finish, the picture is better than nature, but never as good as what was in their minds eye. They worry about it, of course- but they also know that you can never achieve perfection. There's never and end to things. It's like the universe: where do the stars end and heaven begin?"



Two more things that I pulled from the comments on the last post.

"Wasn't it Picasso who said, "A painting is never finished--it simply stops in interesting places." "

"Everyone else has to judge the painting without the benefit of our internal dialogue and the hindsight of seeing the better versions that happened before we finally stopped."

Very good points.

I think that in the end you just have to be happy with where you leave off on the painting. If I am not 90% satisfied with how the piece looks I will cull it out and not frame it and show it. That 90% is an estimate. I shoot for 100%, but I realize that I sometimes have to settle for a little less.

That's it for now.
Thanks!

I get distracted sometimes

"End of Season, Spruce Head", 11" x 14" oil on board, 2008
Private Collection

I get distracted sometimes.
I am learning to use what could be considered a fault as a strength. In my own little way.
Example. This year I have had relatively small windows of studio time in which to paint. Sometimes I will start a painting then run out of time for that session. When I get painting again, I often prefer to start a new painting, since I may not be in the same mood or lack the focus needed to finish the work in progress. Hence, I have a lot of works in progress.

This painting was like that. I started this painting back in October. I worked on it for one session of about four hours. There were a lot of nice loose strokes that I was happy with, but it needed to be refined. There were times that I wanted to finish it up, but always felt a bit disconnected to it and I knew that I would mess it up by trying to make it perfect.

I finally got myself in the mood to wrap this one up last week. I think that by waiting and taking my time on the "finish" that I was able to leave a lot of the loose stuff that I really liked and bring it to a point of finish without killing the spontaneity and freshness of the piece.
You can click on the images to enlarge and see what I mean. Loose strokes, shapes and colors, suggested detail, just enough, but not too much. I don't want to spell it all out. There is a fine line between enough and too much.


Detail, "End of Season, Spruce Head"

O.K., so how does the being distracted help me? My tendency in painting is to want to keep going, trying to make it perfect, and in the process I kill the suggested detail that I like so much in a painting. I don't know how many times I have pushed a painting just a little further only to regret it. My distraction becomes an ability to stop painting, step back, and then either call it done or have the smarts to just add minor corrections or strokes to solidify forms etc.. More on this in a future post.


Detail, "End of Season, Spruce Head"

Painting on location is different. I have a limited amount of time before the light changes. This is good when I only have a short amount of time to paint anyway.
How many of you have done this? You come home from a painting session outdoors, on the spot. You look at your painting in the studio and think, o.k., with just a few more strokes I am going to make this painting sing. Ah ha, those strokes end up ruining all of the freshness and spontanaity of the plein air and you want to throw it across the room. I don't know how many times I have yelled expletives as I act like a lemming jumping into the sea, I ruin a nice painting even as I know that I shouldn't do it. I feel like a moth to a flame. Julissa, my wife, just shakes her head and says, "I told you not to touch it."
I feel so stupid, and in my quest to prove myself, put even more stupid strokes on the piece. I have a lot of them stacked in my studio to prove this.

I feel myself getting distracted as I write. There are so many little side tracks to take here. Time to stop for now, as I don't want to bore you. The next few posts might have a common thread of what is "finished" when it comes to painting. I am really interested in hearing what other artists think or do, when it comes to finish. When to stop, what is enough, how much is too much?