by Yvonne Callaway

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again . . . 

These are words to live and paint by. 

Sometimes a work is completed, cherished, hung on the wall but then . . . somehow something isn’t right. Colour choice, composition, something starts to niggle until, well, it comes off the wall and is back in the studio, waiting for the niggle to be corrected.

Opinions are mixed on this course of action. 

• Perfection doesn’t exist so it is futile to keep tickling a work. Or, 
• Let that work continue as is and apply one’s revised approach to a new piece. Consider a series!
  

But the, ahem, experienced painter may just need to tweak the obvious flaws to reveal a stronger work. So, this week I did that. Twice!

I based Arbour (Dec 2017) on a view from my living room. I love the Victorian house cozied in among trees and rendered it in an autumnal guise. 

I loved it: the colours, the small scale, that it could stand on a shelf. That is, I loved it until I didn’t. I began to detest the work!

In the studio I added trees & foliage in some areas, reduced leafiness in others. I toned back the home to let the woods sparkle. Which necessitated making the pond more vibrant. This is stronger, supporting the title with vibrance.

Running Colours – again with fall tones – has hung in my studio since October 2022, a multimedia piece in acrylic & ink. I had challenged myself to paint what I saw: fall foliage against a bare, harvested field.

I grew to hate that brown field; it didn’t have the signature Callaway colours. I moved Arbour off the worktable & went at her. I added moving water & tall grasses & reflections, made the trees taller.

I’m happier. What do you think?

Pssst, you. Yeah you! Share your creative activities! Send JPG image(s) to cagac.ca@gmail.com with a few words telling us what moved you to produce . . . something! 

Share how creativity affects your life. Please include title & media for each image.