When Do You Call it Finished?

Beginnings...on a 16 x 20" deep canvas

When do you call a painting finished?  I know this is a questions every painter asks.  It is a question I ask often these days. 

Progression...

 I liked this second phase.  It was tempting to stop, but so much of the canvas was still uncovered with paint.  How do you keep going and not loose these ghostly images?  I have no idea how.  

Where I left off last night...
still in progress...
(cutting their clothing was like playing with paper dolls..very fun!)

A little more polished in the above photo...but hopefully not headed in the "tight" direction.  I am always disappointed when they come out tight looking and they often do. 

This is where having an instructor would be awesome, but it's such a pain to drag art supplies (especially when you work in mixed media) back and forth to art lessons.  

So I will just keep painting and figuring it out the hard way...

Have a great Saturday!

PS:  Still having a sale on Etsy plus I listed several new works that are now available.  Sale ends August 17th. 

Bernadette's Bedroom

Bernadette's Bedrrom
11 x 14 inch oil on panel

This is an oil painting I started before I left for North Carolina and it is now finished.  In the beginning the background was just one big curtain, but it seemed so boring so I put in a smaller window and flowered wallpaper.  The carpet design was made by scratching squiggly lines into the paint.  I used a palette knife for the curtains and the bedspread. I thought about putting a vase of flowers or something on the nightstand, but decided to just leave it.  The wonderful thing about painting is you can always change it later if you want to.   I am getting more comfortable with oils the more I use them.  

Close up of Bernadette's Bedroom

My trip to North Carolina with my friends Carol and Kelly was a great time!  One evening, we spent some time drawing and I walked them through the steps of drawing a face with charcoal.  I think they did fabulous!  I really love teaching people how to draw faces, because they always seem to get so into it and really enjoy the process.  

Our drawings:
Carol's, Mine and Kelly's

Every year at our house we throw a July 4th party to celebrate Independence Day and this year we had around 40 people come.  We cooked on the grill, listened to live music...our son plays keyboards for a band and my mother and father in-law have their own 2 person band.  We also watch fireworks and it is so relaxing to sit in a lawn chair and watch our fireworks and all the others around our neighborhood.  Our street is full of families that really like to celebrate so it's quite a show.  I didn't get any photos of the fireworks this year, but here's a great one from last year...

July 4th fireworks at our house

Needless to say, it's been a busy couple of weeks and it will be nice to settle back into a routine and make some art!

See you soon.

♥ Lisa