If this one looks familiar, it is because I previously did it as a digital image. This is the actual painting and not a com-painting, as I call it. And I must say, I am quite happy with it. Like “Paris Skies Feast,” I started out with the digital image and did it as a painting. And with good success I think.
As an artist, for me, the holy grail is to do a painting that I want to keep. Don’t get me wrong, I love everything I do. I could not sit hunched over a drafting table for hours if I didn’t love it. I don’t call a painting finished until I can step back and look at it and feel satisfied it is done and it is the best it can be. But it has been a very long time since I have not wanted to sell a painting.
When I first began painting for a living, I would try something new. I’d be so thrilled with the way it turned out that I wanted to keep it. I have mentioned this before, but, it bears repeating. My art teacher in high school told me that as an artist, you should never keep a painting you love, because you will never try to improve upon it.
He was absolutely right. For every painting I thought was the best thing I had ever done, I learned from it and did one I liked even better. It was usually one that, in the beginning I thought I could never pull off. I thought it was beyond my abilities. And then, I did it.
When I first did a digital version of “Kelp Forest Frolic” on the computer, I was very excited with it. Then I threw in a few more layers and loved it even more. But I thought I’d never be able to do an actual painting of it. But I gave it a shot and here is the result. I love it! But I won’t keep it. I can already look at it and see how, in the next one I can move this and that, add to it here and there. That is part of my process.
But, if anyone wants to take temptation out of my way, it is now at New Masters Gallery in Carmel. Feel free. I won’t be mad.
