As usual when I put a new painting in my living room, I see it more clearly. I have only one place in my house to hang a large painting and that’s over my piano. And I want something there I can savor, something I can continue to look at and learn from.
Down in my crowded, messy studio, a painting can look finished, but then I bring it upstairs and I see I need to work on it more. It is very discouraging because of the hassle, taking a large, sometimes still wet painting up and down the stairs, hanging it, un-hanging it, re-hanging it. But in the end, it’s worth it. . . unless I ruin it in the process of “fixing” it. That hasn’t happened yet, but it still could.
With the process I use, painting over other layers of paint, it’s generally possible to keep going until something is finished. And finished means, I can’t think of anything else it needs; I’ve done what makes every aspect of it work together. And then it can stay on the wall.
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