Attachments

I figured out why I was so stuck on one of the paintings I started in January this year. It seems to always be the area one is attached to that is holding up progress and/or one's unwillingness to let go of said area. So even though I haven't finished this piece yet, I wanted to post it to show how attachments you need to let go of, hold you up.

Last Saturday I had dinner with a writer friend of mine. She was talking about a new essay she had written for her online newsletter. She was lamenting that she had to cut the best line out of her latest work to make the rest of the article pull together. How her attachment to that one line was keeping it from being a cohesive whole. But that maybe she could work that cut line in some not yet unwritten piece in the future. I then proceeded to tell her I had the exact same thing happen to me! Except in paint. Her first response was oh how sad! I could not ever reuse it. Which isn't exactly true. I feel that every time this happens there is always a takeaway from it.

This first image is where I had finally roughed in the sky really liking the energy of it. Unfortunately, I put it in after I had already begun painting atop the block-in of the rest of the painting. I remember being intimidated by the sky in the reference, so I was in avoidance mode. Leave it until I am ready or can't ignore it anymore.

When not done in proper order, confusion results

If I had added the sky when the rest of the painting was in the same state (below), who knows where it might have gone, right? My aim is always to keep some of that block-in brushwork but it is so rare, not sure why I keep thinking that will happen.

block in as I figure out shapes and proportions

Here is the painting with the new sky that better fits the rest of the piece. The new sky actually helps the piece overall so much it almost seems like a new painting and yet I feel I was able to keep some of the brushwork I had become so attached to. I can finally go back to the rest of it now that it doesn't feel like two separate paintings. I don't think it will take much to finish. To be continued.

Starting to pull together finally