When is a Painting finished?

22" x 22" Acrylic on Canvas. Painting by Flora Doehler, 2011.

Occasionally I'll read an article about some old Masters painting that was x-rayed to reveal another painting underneath. The writer will seem amazed and surprised by this. Oh, if those writers only knew how common this is for painters!

These past couple of weeks I've been trying to discipline myself to finish up some of the unfinished canvases I have accumulated in the studio.

These paintings are under the finished piece. I still like the first one. It was fresh and spontaneous. However, I prefer my latest version of this.

I found some paintings that I don't like anymore. Either they don't intrigue me or they just don't have the movements and/or color that I like to achieve.

When I'm not happy with the outcome of the painting I like to use it as a background for a new one. So rather than paint the whole thing out in one colour and start 'fresh', I like to incorporate aspects of that old painting into the new.

Pushing the paint away to reveal the colours underneath.

This painting morphed several times. In its last three incarnations it hung in my studio like a reproach saying “are you really satisfied with me?” I would stare back at it and try to imagine what it could be. I'd pick out the parts that I really liked and visualize how I could retain them and change the rest. I'd think about what colors to obliterate and then every 6 months I'd take it off the wall and work on it some more.

Tulips lift my heart!

Still inspired by yet more tulips that I found in Digby at the grocery store, I decided to turn this back into a tulip painting. I wanted to calm down the yellow and red while retaining glimpses of those exciting colours. 

I squirted matte medium over the entire canvas and then brushed first blue paint, then green over the canvas in strategic places. I used my rubber tipped color shaper to pull away some of the blue and green pants to reveal the tulips underneath.

Adding matt medium slows down the drying time so there is time to shape and scrape the surface.

Finally, I brushed some red and yellow on top of the painting to suggest the tulips.

I am happy with the outcome of this painting. I like the colours now. The green and blue create a movement in the painting that I think expresses the energy those flowers transmit. The tulips explode to the surface.

However, that could change in another 6 months. When is a painting finished? That can be a very tricky question.

I paint on a flat surface so that the matt medium and fluid acrylics don't run.

What do you do with your abandoned paintings? And how do you know when a piece is finished?

I'm loving that green that I bought in Vancouver and flew out here to the east coast last November.

Lost and Found - Painting all Over

Painting details. Click on the images for a larger version.

In my continuing attempt to deal with unfinished paintings, I came across one of an amarylis flower from last spring that lacked the energy that I found in that beautiful bloom. I loved the reds and I felt attached to the colours in the painting, but not to the outcome.

Amarylis 2010-2011

In the end I felt my painting was overworked and I work very hard at painting in a loose and free manner. It requires concentration and confidence. If I allow doubt and hesitation to take over, the marks and strokes reflect that and the work looses it's fluidity. My painting confidence comes from regular painting but also enough sleep, feeling good about other things, great food, company, music and surroundings. A painter friend of mine said it perfectly: "I live in a state of constant angst about painting covered with a thin patina of confidence." There is so much that goes into a painting! It is a mysterious alchemy.

Waiting for the thaw.

I've been admiring for months the colored bottles in my windowsill that hold seed pods from last year's fields. My friend Pamela came by the other day and said “Why don't you paint those green bottles?” The question had occurred to me as well – I just wasn't sure how to approach it.

And then as I was going through my pile of "unfinished paintings",  I came across the Amaryllis. I decided to use it as the background for my painting of the bottles because red and green are complementary colors and are very exciting together.

A chose a pthalo green for this painting which I rarely use. Honestly, I'm not very fond of that green at all (although I love it in this painting!). But I wanted a contrast for the red underneath. So against my emotional judgement, I smeared a combination of the green, a touch of zinc white and gel medium over the entire canvas.

Scraping the green paint reveals the painting underneath.

The gel medium delays the drying time and enables me to scrape the paint away right down to the color on the canvas. I use a rubber tipped “color shaper” for this.
The big advantage of painting over another painting is that it really eliminates the “fear of the white canvas phenomena” :-) It also creates unintentional surprises when the two realities of two different images combine or collide.
You can see in this photograph that the Amaryllis is still showing through the green. That transparency is because of the gel medium that I added to the colors.

I really liked the intensity of the red against the dark green.

Because of the green, I was drawn to put some blue highlights into the painting in a cerulean blue colour that I also rarely use. I also added a red oxide. In other words, because I had stepped away from my usual palette with the green, I was compelled to use colours that I seldom use. 

Some strategic opaque greens obscure the flower head.

I'm very happy with the looseness of this painting. I like the feeling of a woodcut and the suggestion of a drawing as well. The 'hidden' painting has brought this canvas to life.

Hidden in the Shadows. Acrylic painting by Flora Doehler, 2011.

This photo gives you an idea of the size of the canvas. 

Painting seed pods with a creamy colour bring the stalks forward.

I use Golden Fluid Acrylics and here is a colour chart of their paints.

If you are interested in purchasing this painting, please contact me at 

flora.doehler[at]gmail.com

Cleaning up my Act - the Unfinished Paintings

It's time to clean up my act...the procrastination act.

Detail of painting in progress.

Out in the studio I've noticed the canvases are multiplying. Yet when my gallery owner friend Rob Buckland dropped in the other day to see my “new work”, I stalled him with lunch and conversation. Finally, we ran out of time to visit the studio.


“You're painting a lot! I see that from the blog. I'd like to have a look at what you're doing.”

Part of the "Work in Progress" pile.

I have been painting consistently this winter, but when I took a long hard look at it, I realized much of my work is unfinished.
I took this opportunity to look at why this happens to me. It's nothing new. I dragged lots of unfinished watercolors with me to Nova Scotia over three years ago to “finish some day”.

My ever changing palette of fluid acrylics.

Like so many artists, the part of painting that I like the best is the beginning. Why? Because beginning is full of endless possibilities , fresh color, new ideas and pure joy. I also really like the actual process of painting–it's far more enjoyable than the end product.

Transforming an unhappy painting.

When the work gets to the point where I'm unsure how to proceed, I set it aside rather than overwork it and kill it. But often during that critical waiting period, a fresh idea for an entirely different painting will come along and off I go on my new adventure. Then I think that I can't get back the feeling that led me to the original painting. Mixed in with this is the fear of ruining what's already there. It's complicated and it's also universal. In the book Art and Fear, the author talks about this phenomena in this book for artists and creative types.

My original painting felt unfinished.

I keep the hot drink on the left side so I don't put my paint brush into it!

A couple of weeks ago, partly driven by the many canvases in the studio and motivated by wanting to give Rob work for the Flight of Fancy I decided not to start anything new until the “almost finished” canvases are painted, signed, sealed, have their edges painted and are ready for hanging.

Inspired by a Geranium blooming in the studio.

Surprisingly, working on them has been like visiting an old friend in their presence I remembered what drew me to them in the first place along with the thought “why didn't I do this sooner?”
Do you have unfinished work? How do you handle it?

I'll let you know about my progress this week.