How Now?

How Now?
Oil on stretched canvas, 24x48

Call me at 860-442-0246 or email me

if you are interested in buying this painting

I'm becoming increasingly interested in the question of when a painting is finished. I think that this painting could have been called "finished" at a certain point yesterday, when I had painted the cows and the mud, the far-off mountains and trees, and everything else was just sketched in.

No red barn, no red feeding cage, no big green bush. I'd sketched these in, just outlined them, but they weren't painted in.

I should have taken a photo of the painting at that point, but it was raining, and so, shooting a photograph would have meant stopping for the day. And while I had the idea that the painting could have been called "finished" at that point, I didn't have the courage to make that call.

Don't get me wrong - I love this painting the way it is. I never know how a painting will look on your computer, but in real life, this painting is rich with color and depth. The cows are luxuriously colorful, with blues and reds and purples. The wet ground shimmers with color and reflections, and the big old barn stands in deep red shambles behind the bovines.

But still - the point of the painting, for me, is the cows. And so the rest, while fun and rich and adding to the portraiture, is all secondary.

Next time, I'll stop at that point and at least take a photo. I'd like to know what you all think.