Playing is a vital part of creativity. Remove the expectation and just see what happens. I am enjoying that with my melaleuca paintings. Laying down washes and then exploring, looking for shapes and tones that I can enhance to build up the image.
Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. And sometimes there are only parts that I like. Part of the freedom of playing is that I am learning to chop up the paper, to define what I like. It happened with this painting.
I was working on three different elements — the seed capsules, done in pencil; a close up of the tree; the background stand of trees. The latter two were done in watercolour washes. It took me a while to realise that the composition was the problem. The focal point is the middle section, where there is the white of the background and the not so convincing trunks of the tree. It is the negative space between the tree trunks that you are looking at.
Besides the tree reminded me of a three headed hydra. So, carrying the metaphor further, I chopped the hydra in half!
That gave me a smaller, but more satisfying painting. I have worked my way into the washes, especially in the bottom part, to create the canopies of the bushes. It is clearer to see with a mount to remove other distractions.
And a close up of the lower part.
It also leaves me with another little painting to work on, maybe.
Anne Lawson Art 
9 replies on “Chopping up paintings”
I know *exactly* what you mean. It works the same way with patchwork – sometimes the absolute best thing you can do is cut it up into different pieces and rearrange things. Changing the focus, perspective and colour balance, and as you say, expectation, and you get something fresh, unexpected and interesting.
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That’s so true. One of the joys of the creative process is recognising the unexpected, but too often we have a tunnel vision of how we want it to be. So much of what I am doing at the moment comes back allowing myself to do things. Hmmm, I need to think about this some more. Maybe a blog post soon……
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It’s wonderful that you have faith enough in your artist talent to see how to a piece further… irrevocably… unlike when editing writing or cropping a digital photo something there’s no backup to revert to. The form of the seed capsules with the verdant offset of the tree become something completely different when viewed alone.
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It is so easy for me to get caught up in the need to have a finished thing. I understand what you are saying about the digital world, although disasters can easily happen there too!
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Wow, lovely paining and nice colors.
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And chopping up the painting was quite liberating too! I often get quite precious about my work.
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-grin- I chop too! Well, sort of. Words, phrases and even whole chapters sometimes have to be chopped out of one spot and, hopefully, re-inserted somewhere else. And yes it is liberating, after the initial shock. 🙂
Btw I really love the seed box thingie. Could that have a painting of its own as well?
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I quite often cut only the image, the photo. However, I really liked your trees and seeds, everything was fine, but artist obviously feels how it should be and what makes the most sense.
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And it is also about having the courage to do something out of the ordinary!
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