Not Every Painting is a Masterpeice

It has been a while since I have posted on this blog. One of the reasons is I have not been painting for a while. That always signals problems and difficulty getting back in my grove.

The painting I started a couple of weeks ago got worse and worse everyday that I spent hours working on it. Finally, after about a week of struggle, I realized that it couldn't be fixed and I would paint over it.

I get frustrated when I am in a creative funk. I look at paintings I made in the past and think. "I used to be able to paint. What happened?"

I was listening to a podcast about artists, including musicians and writers, who often don't recognize their "masterpieces". Time and other critics will decide. Shakespeare did not think his Hamlet was one of his greats. Beethoven also did not revere his most accomplished compositions. So we artistic creators maybe should not to be making final decisions about the quality of our work; however, I live with another artist, my youngest daughter and she has a qualified and experienced eye, and she agreed that this recent painting was not going to be a masterpiece.

See for yourself:

The figure in this encaustic painting was flat, too pretty and boring.

I added the veil and that didn't help at all

First layer of old wax and oil

Next day. I disliked the colors

I am stopping here for a while. It is not finished, but I hope to get some inspiration after two weeks of gallery sitting for a friend.