To Follow my Heart or the Crowd?
While doing a hands-on project, be it woodwork, baking, art, or trimming shrubs, have you ever thought: “I just need to do one more little tweak, and then it’ll be perfect!”? Has that little adjustment ever ended up totally transforming your project (whether for better or worse)?
Growing up I heard the tale of my industrious, very gifted uncle building a glass aquarium for his fish. Building with glass always impressed me because it calls for the use of fastening methods other than hammer and nails. This uncle is a bit of a perfectionist (it seems to run in the family), so to most eyes, the aquarium was well and truly complete, nevertheless, he didn’t think so. Most unfortunately whatever final tweak he was making, so the story goes, resulted in the entire aquarium shattering. How devastating! And all the more when one step before the “tweak”, it could have been considered “complete”.
Now I may have my own tale to add to the family history of “final tweaks”. I’ve been working on a simple painting of a misty morning lake scene in which a couple is canoeing peacefully. I took the reference photo about a decade ago and have always meant to paint it. To my great surprise, for I’ll never know how to forecast the response of the world to my paintings, this piece garnered more attention (and appreciation) than most of my other posts displayed on Social Media. My description of the piece read:
Not done!! It's a very simple scene, and the elements are all there, but so far I've used only 2 colours: Payne's grey (a misnomer because it's more of a very deep blue/black), and titanium white. I thought about painting with just black and white, but think this does need colour, (hence the use of Payne's Grey rather than black). I figured the blue/black would be a better foundation for some subtle but enhancing colour. Stay tuned to see what happens....
First version of “Misty Morning” (30”x24”) using only two colours
And there were over 50 comments, some of which were very adamant:
“ Stop now. Do not touch it!!!!”
“…don’t even breathe on it!”
“ I agree. It's perfect as is.”
“I agree with others...leave as is. I think you can breathe on it though..lol...”
And so I debated a few days – do I leave it, or do I forge ahead with my vision of adding that hint of colour? As you may guess from the gist of this blog, I decided to proceed. It’s not that I didn’t care what my “adoring fans” (ha!) thought, but more – as one commenter pointed out – they couldn’t really make a fair decision about whether colour should be added without knowing what that would look like. And, for that matter, neither could I. So with a deep breath and much trepidation, I began cautiously adding my envisioned hints of colour.
Final version of “Misty Morning” with added colours
No question, the colour changed the scene. I guess it’s totally subjective as to whether the change is positive or negative. I did take careful photos of the 2-colour version in case prints are requested, and in case I ‘destroyed’ it with more colour. I think it could go both ways, but the addition of colour undoubtedly softens the drama. I wonder if the warmer tones will make it a trickier piece to place than it was when it looked more black and white.
All of this leads to the question: when do I follow the crowd, and when do I follow my “heart” (not to sound too flaky)? Perhaps I need a mentor who can give me wise guidance and critique from a standpoint I can understand artistically (actually this is definitely a dream of mine). I don’t like painting with the goal of meeting trends, and satisfying the fickle preferences of the mob. When I have done so in the past, my work has absolutely lacked that intangible quality of being painted with passion. I don’t know how, but I think humans can intuit when passion is involved in the creative process even by seeing only the finished product. My “made-for-your-approval” art always seems somewhat dead, though I cannot explain why. Perhaps it’s akin to “tasting the love” baked into one of Grandma’s pies, vs. tasting just the sugary sweetness of a mass-produced grocery store pie.
I hope people aren’t offended that I chose not to heed their advice. I’ve actually been holding off posting the coloured version for slight fear of the crowd’s fury or disappointment. Each painting I create contains lessons for me. There is no point freezing up in doubt; I’ll keep painting and gradually I may get a better sense of when “done is done” for future paintings.
Dare I ask…which painting version do you prefer?
