From the responses I get to my blog and videos I can tell that most of my supporters are ambitious, hard-working, and creative in their own right so I feel like many of you will be able to relate to a recent gnawing feeling I had when creating a painting that was not my best work. I struggled a little bit with an internal dialog when deciding whether or not to take the time to go back and correct my shortcomings.
Sometimes good enough is good enough, but often times it’s not.
When working on a repetitive or tedious part of a painting it can be tempting to just go through the motions until the paint is on the canvas (or linen in my case) and be done with that area as soon as you can. However, in the grand scheme of things I have learned that there really is no point to making art unless you are sincerely doing your very best and genuinely trying to use all of your skills to make the most remarkable work you possibly can.
As much as I hate to admit it, art is not a necessity, at least not in the way food, water and shelter are, so if you have something creative yet extraneous to minimal survival that you wish to share with the world, I have learned that it is wise to push yourself to your limits and go all out in creating something truly incredible and unusual. A good rule of thumb is that audiences don’t remember ‘average’, they remember ‘mind-blowing.’
Today I am happy to share with you friends a little demonstration of how I decided to take my own advice, even though it meant redoing something I had already spent a few hours on.
Last week I painted this dahlia, the first one like it I have ever done, and I kind of knew that I didn’t start off with a strong enough drawing, which is honestly why it eventually turned into a weak painting. At first I thought I could just muddle through and maybe go back in with a few corrections, but after feeling dissatisfied every time I glanced this painting on my easel I just knew that this was not remarkable enough to be proud to show an audience. Good enough was not good enough for me.
I decided to completely go over what I had done before and give myself a better ground surface and a much better drawing. I also took extra time and care while painting and I'm pretty thrilled how it turned out! It did take me a few hours to paint just one and I still have two more to go, but in the end all the time is worth creating something I can truly be proud of:)
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originally published April 8, 2018