Garden Roses, July – Oil on panel, 7 by 5 inches
At auction until Thursday 18th July, 2019
Failure is an inevitable part of life.
It’s certainly an inevitable part of an artist’s life.
If your’e doing anything that you really care about, that gives your life much of its meaning, then feeling that you’ve come up short can be devastating.
It might be unpleasant to live through when it happens, but it’s also a sign, very often, that growth is happening.
Because as long as you don’t allow it to actually stop you working, you can use it as fuel to move you forward.
If you can get back up, pick up your brushes, squeeze out some paint and try again, then failure can have a positive side.
But I don’t think it happens just by doing.
I felt like that before I started this painting because the one that came just before it didn’t work out – despite spending a lot of time on it and (I thought) trying very hard to make a good piece of work.
To come back from that I had to spend a lot of time thinking, some time writing (writing out my thoughts helps me work through them) and then some more time thinking before I thought I knew what I had to do to move forward.
I took it slow at first. This painting is small, but still took me longer than most of my small paintings.
There were a few things I decided to do before I started:
- Make sure the value balance for the whole painting was established at the start.
- Work as slowly as I needed to to be satisfied with what I was doing – no auto-pilot painting.
- Try hard not to leave any part of the painting I wasn’t satisfied with for the sake of getting it finished.
- Be careful to paint the internal colour relationships of the flowers as accurately as I could.
- See it as an experiment in working method, rather than an attempt to make a finished piece of work.
Given that I deliberately set out not to make a finished painting, it’s a little ironic that this one came out better than many other paintings I’ve done recently. Since I could see that was happening from about half way through, I took it further than I’d originally intended and finished it.
It was like a gasp of air to a drowning man. I began to see a way forward and to believe again that I have a right to be here, doing this and calling myself a painter.
I know. It probably seems silly. But when you give something everything you have, and when you’re taking a leap into the unknown – as I think we always do when we start a painting – then it’s perhaps natural to lose a bit of perspective sometimes.
And perhaps it’s not always a bad thing.
Perhaps that loss of perspective and the pain that comes with it can be a meaningful part of the learning process, and a spur to move on to better things.
Best wishes and thanks for reading,
Paul
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Love how you paint, Paul. The roses are beautifully painted and are lovely! But, in my humble opinion, the end of that bright green stem appears to be sticking out of the glass, and with the adjacent light spot on the table makes it compete as the focal point. The importance (brightness) should be taken away from that stem, let the roses shine. My opinion, of course.
Thanks J – and I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with you, I was just having too much fun painting that stem 🙂
Actually, I like the stem a lot. It leads the eye up to the roses and adds interest to the painting, giving it movement.
That’s so funny…I got almost the same comment on my last roses painting [https://wp.me/pYe1-1oz9] and I gave almost the same answer: I was really enjoying painting the stems and their pattern in the glass. I had to restrain myself from creating even more contrast on them and making the stems the focus of the painting instead of the roses!
I didn’t feel it was a successful painting but when that happens I try, like you, to figure out where I went wrong and look for passages that went right (to avoid being too negative and discouraging myself).
The biggest challenges for painting flowers for me, once I began to understand their structure and what I was actually seeing, is that they just keep moving and changing, then flop and die before I’m finished. But painting quickly isn’t the answer either, since that leads to the things you mention in your post, like “trying to finish” instead of taking care to mix accurate values and hues.
Love this painting! beautiful !!!!
Thank you Cindy!
Hi Paul
It’s immediately obvious that you have been deeply drawn in to what you call the internal colour relationship of the flower , its musical , and floaty . You’d be right to feel vindicated as a painter .
I’d love to see the failed work too , All my works are failures to some degree . As Churchill said , Success is the ability to go from failure to failure with undiminished enthusiasm .
Your blogs are a great help to me , keep up the good work ..
That’s great to hear Giles, thank you.
I agree!!
It’s really beautiful Paul, there is a subtle tenderness in the roses.
I don’t think that an artist will ever come to the point that they can say they have arrived or know everything. Leonardo Da Vinci was always experimenting so I think its normal to have your ups and downs and you are a good artist, never doubt that.
Thank you Wilma. And you’re absolutely right, we never will reach that point. Just as well that the journey is so interesting!
I agree…I love that: “subtle tenderness” — perfect description!
Great write up and beautiful painting Paul!
Thanks Alexei and great to hear from you! How is your Munselling going?
Great words and a welcome reminder, Paul.
you could go a step further, and paint a portrait of your painting in the environment the original painting is placed in. I really liked the composition in the photo in the preview above, and would love a painting of it
I suppose I could! I photograph them like that because that’s how you see them in the real world, from a medium distance – and that’s also how I paint them to be seen. I do post close-ups too, but they give a very different impression of the painting I think, which doesn’t necessarily reproduce the effect well.
The light hitting the stem is perfect, my favourite part of the painting. Full of joy. Great work on the background and leaves. Really atmospheric and subtle, textured without looking grubby. How’d you manage that?
Just opened my iPad and saw your beautiful painting Paul –
The first thing that caught my eye was the stem and how realistic it was – to me it was the focal point – it made the painting stand out from so many other Still Life Rose Studies.
Thought it contrasted beautifully with the softness of the roses.
It is surprising how painful and discouraging it can be to go through a spell of making crummy piece after crummy piece. I’ve begun to understand and accept that these spells really are growth periods, that I need to pay attention either better or differently (or both), and to trust in process rather than finish. Continuing to work, continuing to pay attention, sharing my struggles with other artists in my drawing groups, and doing something different to shake things up is the way through for me. Thank you for your generosity in sharing a little of your struggle and process. I’m glad you found your way through!
Very good advice about not letting failure stop you…I had someone not purchase a commission…they ghosted me once the portrait was completed. That has made me stop for a while but, I want to get back to painting again.
Beautiful little painting by the way. I really struggle with painting flowers, can’t seem to organize all the petals.
Paul I like the pure colours in your painting. I think it’s your best work yet. Lovely roses. Good lighting, values great. Agree with what A says about your photo too.