Is your painting a lucky shot? How can you tell if it’s perfect?

Pondering some of my paintings. I occasionally pull one or two off my studio wall for a re-work.

I may add a few more brushstrokes, include another color, or re-work the whole painting. Sometimes I change the subject to something else.

If you create a painting and save it no matter how bad you know it is, you will learn a whole lot more by either throwing it away and starting over, or reworking the piece.

Throwing away a painting or re-working it takes guts for a budding artist. Believe me, as you get more into your art, you learn that change is good. If you mess up again, put it away and get back to it another time. If you painted it once, you can do it again. Don’t think you were lucky for the success you had in creating that last painting…that you may never be able to do that again.

Famous artists have destroyed their artwork, for various reasons. Michael Angelo was unhappy about the leg of Christ in his sculpture of The Disposition. The sculpture was salvaged, and the leg is still missing. Georgia O’Keefe, during her career as an artist and at the end of her life destroyed several of her paintings for personal reasons. Claude Monet destroyed some his works too. So trash or re-work your pieces and consider yourself among true artists.

The more you paint a subject, your observation skills improve. Critical thinking improves. Your painting will be better than your previous lucky, unexpected masterpiece. Practice makes better.

Perfect? Who determines “perfection” in any medium?

Once the artist puts down the brush or pen and acknowledges that he is done, he offers it to the world. Someone will appreciate what he has created and hopefully purchase it. “Perfection” is the acknowledgement by another person who buys the artwork and brings it home to admire further with family and friend.

So trash that last not-so-good painting you know sucks and start again…or do a re-work.