I'm asked all the time how long it takes to paint a painting. It's all a unique journey. Every painting is a relationship and unique just as we form our human relationships.
Paintings, sometimes happens right away with a connection that bursts in spontaneity with every brush stroke. You leave it fresh, rather then polish it to perfection.
Still again, there's the ones that you battle through to turn and they become an obsession that you can't get out of your mind night and day. Finally, the door opens and you go in and it all comes together on the canvas after weeks if not months on the creative battlefield.
One of my favorites is the turn around....2nd chance relationship. A painting will come back from a gallery unsold and I'll live with it in my studio until one day it calls out to me about ...."how about we do this?" A new chapter in that paintings life begins and I usually go in with abandon since we have nothing to loose. These relationships are always kindle"the freedom" of creativity. Such is the case with "Tucked in for Winter" shown above. It has had a long transition and last year I thought it was done but only to find it back in my studio. I decided to step inside the scene again with my heart, like I did when I use to drive by this farm and say, "Someday, I will paint that" I finally created the mood I was looking for with the misty snow on a cloudy morning. Now, it has become a cherished painting because we can relate to each other the exact feeling I was looking for plus more and that is the magic the painting itself created.
But not all paintings work. Some you just have to cut bait and move on with. Sometimes I'll save those canvases and bring new life to that painting like a secret by painting over it a completely new painting, but always leaving just a shred of the original peaking through. My fellow artist friend and I would go into the gallery and point out to each other which one of our paintings on the wall contain this secret.
So, what is the life lesson from this studio then? Well, it's understanding that our world is made up of many relationships and timing. All relationships don't reveal themselves on the spot, most take time, turns and reintroduction. All are cherished because of the journey. All hold a warm spot in your heart, like relationships.