If at first you don't succeed........

An old saying....but oh so true. 

A couple of months ago I talked about painting more than one 'original' of the same painting.  Well, if it's my choice to do it, that's one thing.  I'll gladly paint another 'original' for someone.

But......if you have an idea in your mind of what you want the painting to be....and it doesn't turn out, what do you do?  I have had several paintings that I wanted to just stop.  I seemed to be having problem after problem......or even one big problem.  What should I do?  Well, I used to just stop and say that's it.  Never mind. (easy if it's not a commission piece!).  But then I decided to keep on going.....and see what turns out.  I have been pleasantly surprised many times, and very glad that I did keep going.  Somehow I was able to 'save' the painting. 

But......what if you get all the way through and take a good look at it, and say "that is not what I wanted to paint", then what to do?  Well, as I was told many years ago, "It's just paper".  Paint it again!  And see what happens.

I had a commission piece a couple of years ago that just did not work.  But I had to make it work.  So I finished the first version.  I knew that things that I needed to correct as I started the second version.  Happily, I was pleased with the second version, as were my customers.  (I am not going to show you the painting though, because I don't want them to know that I had trouble ;) )

Now, here we have a photograph that I saw on Facebook.  I asked the photographer for permission to paint it and she said sure, but she'd like a print of it.  Someone else said that they too would like a print.  Oh yeah...I haven't even painted it yet.  What if they don't like it......pressure mounting here.......all of a sudden this has almost become like a commission.    I attacked the painting, figuring out the colours to match the photo (you know that I'm like that - I like to paint exactly what I see...I am not going to 'interpret' it).......and when I got finished I was so disappointed.  My armchair critic and friendly advisors all agreed that it just wasn't there.   So at that point, I easily could have said, oh well....and rip it up (because remember "it's just paper")...no big deal.  
But I didn't.  I decided to paint it over again, just being a bit stubborn.  I lightened what I thought was too dark, I calmed the waves, I brightened the whole piece, I chose a bit better colours.  And I was very pleased with what I came up with.  So I was going to use my #2 painting as 'the painting'.  But a funny thing happened as I was looking at them both (I like to sit them on the piano for a day or two and take a careful look noting what can be done to finish)....I ended up liking #1 as much as #2.  They are different indeed.  But obviously the same place....just a different time perhaps?  Things about both of them draw my eye.  So I'm calling #2 "MillPond Sunset" and #1 "Millpond Last Light".....because I think now that it's actually the same night, but 20 minutes later!  Yeah, that's my story! 

And maybe neither one actually is the same as the photo!  But that doesn't matter at all does it!   And I'm ok if those 2 people choose not to have a copy.  We all have a picture in our mind of what a painting will look like.     

Ha ha....I guess it IS my interpretation after all!