What a Difference a Dab Can Make (When is a Painting Really Finished?)

I awoke very early one morning recently.  4 o'clock early, so I traded off sweet slumber for a little studio time.  As I dabbed on paint here and there on a little girl's face, I became aware of the vast difference that one little dab of paint can make.  I am talking beauty vs. the beast, expressions of horror vs. wonder, happy vs. sad, delight vs. menacing. With each dab of paint, she went back and forth between having an expression of being: perplexed, tired, 10 years older, then ah, softly smiling.  Now to try and add a little bit of "wonder" to her expression.

For the record, I have seen some scary faces on my easel.  These are not what gets shared abroad so maybe you would have never guessed.  I don't usually even record, with photos, the scary side of my paintings.  Just like we humans try to put our best face forward when in public, so I try to only put my best and finished paintings out there for anyone to see.  There is that word again, finished.  (See post from July 25 about finishing things.)

A couple of days ago I had a deadline for emailing a photo of my work in progress to the curators of an art show coming up in August.  They said the work should be 80% complete.  First of all, no one can even know when a work is 80% complete!  Why?  Because you don't know a work is complete, sometimes even when it is complete! Secondly, do you know how hard it is to send a picture of an unfinished painting to people you have never met, who have never seen any of your art?  Hitting send was a "cringe" moment, and for good reason.   Within 12 hours of hitting send, my painting was in an entirely different state and looking so much more promising.

A common problem for an artist is knowing when to stop.  Working on a painting past its prime moment can be disastrous.  One only finds out after the fact how much better the work looked when it was a little simpler, a little fresher.  Thus the term "overworked".  An artist dreads hearing this, "Hmm..I think you really overworked that area."  Once that is the case, it is pretty hard to re-wind and undo what has been done.

On the other hand, sometimes we think we are almost done, only to discover whole sections that are "off" in perspective or proportion.  One of my best documented illustrations of this is my painting "Birthday Angel" painted a few years ago (below).  This was based on a photo of my daughter Claire lighting birthday candles.  When I first painted it, the perspective and proportions in her face and arms

and dress weren't quite right.  This was one that improved vastly with the total re-vamping of large areas.  However, when the first photo that you see above was taken, I thought I was very nearly finished!  I would have said I was 90% finished at this point.  However, given all that I did to it after this photo, it turns out I was only 55-60% finished.  The trade off was a loss of the original lighter tones and a kind of transparency that wasn't present in the finished painting.  I would still take the trade off today.  So, when do you know you are finished?