Let's Talk Art Blog

How do I know when a painting is finished? I've got new paintings on the go at the moment and this week I felt like I was getting close to finishing one of them....... And that's when the artists' age-old dilemma comes into play. At what point do I stop and feel satisfied that this painting is 'done'?

I started this sketch thinking I'd have another go with violet and green - but as you'll see after much indecision I ended up making pink the dominant colour, hence the title. It took me a while to tune into this sketch and I had a little wrestle with details - too much too soon, so lots of covering up and some big collage pieces to the rescue! Some interesting new shapes and ideas did emerge by the end though which may carry forward into something bigger.

Check out a few of the ways I create surface and visual texture in my paintings. They're a couple of my go-to options when I'm treating larger areas of space, especially when I'm working with just paint - no collage. This is one of the studies I did for my 'Wall of Curiosities' where I was keen to explore bold and simple compositions - and that meant keeping the shapes interesting in some way!

I needed to work with warm colours today, it's a bit chilly here in Queensland at the moment! I chose a range of analogous colours from yellow-orange-red to get me started. I also happened upon a little box of interesting collage snippings that I thought I'd incorporate - hence the bubbles. I'm not sure where the inner circles ended up but I love the little windows these 'leftovers' create.

As I've been working on my new paintings, one of them began to wander off into the land of pinks and greens, which isn't a colour combination I've really used before. So, I thought I'd have a quick play around with doing a sketch in muted colours to see what would happen and if I was struck by any kind of inspiration!

I’ve been meaning to try beginning with a black background to see what difference that makes to the final piece and I had a 30 x 30 cm board to experiment with, just lying around so I thought I’d give it a go whilst I still had the blues and ranges on my palette. The black underneath created unexpected little pockets of deep 'space' which were intriguing. I’m not sure I could have achieved these without the black under painting.