There are a lot of reasons artists don’t finish paintings. Death, for one, such as in Vincent van Gogh’s “Street in Auvers-sur-Oise” unfinished from the June in 1980 that he shot himself. Lovely painting, horrible death.
Correction: According to the research of Pulitzer Prize-winning biographers Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith in their book published in 2011, the painter didn’t shoot himself, he was shot accidentally by thugs. I apologize for posting inaccurate information. Please read this following V. Note for slightly less inaccurate information about the topic.
Picasso, Woman in a Red Armchair, 1931
For most painters, starting a painting is infinitely easier than finishing one. With every brush stroke, the number of “right moves” diminishes – whereas at the beginning every move was a right move, half way through, problems begin to emerge, many times with solutions unknown. Completing a painting can be similar to solving a puzzle, and in a sense, though it is satisfying to solve a puzzle, the artist kills all the potentials it could have been, and the engaging relationship with with the work is over.
Personally, I prefer the unfinished paintings because I can see more of the making of it, the process. Not only can I see the artists’ thinking, but I can participate in it more. I also like the sustained, suspended daydream of what the painting could become, had things been a little different.
[image_with_animation image_url=”9488″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] This is the third part of a multi day series, sharing work by my beginning figure drawing classes. Many of these students have never taken a drawing class before, nearly all of them are new to figure drawing. Rather than learning one style, we study a different approach every …
On January 6 I posted a challenge that was inspired by John Oliver on Last Week Tonight. The challenge was to imagine what Julius Pringles looks like below the neck. We had so many fun submissions that I felt they deserved to be in their own collection. Here they are, in their crispy glory, starting …
If you have taken or taught a class at the Seattle Artist League in the last year, you are invited to submit up to three artworks to our online show. We can’t promise we’ll show every piece, but we will show at least one artwork per person. This show is about you as an artist, so you …
[image_with_animation image_url=”5970″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Sunrise looks like sunset, with this much smoke in the air. Yesterday every smoke alarm in my building was wailing, and my phone, no longer under my control, said “fah-yer. fah-yer.fah-yer.fah-yer.” The view outside was orange and hazy, and for a short childish moment, I thought the entire world …
Unfinished Paintings
[image_with_animation image_url=”9566″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”]
Alice Neel, James Hunter Black Draftee
There are a lot of reasons artists don’t finish paintings. Death, for one, such as in Vincent van Gogh’s “Street in Auvers-sur-Oise” unfinished from the June in 1980 that he shot himself. Lovely painting, horrible death.
Correction: According to the research of Pulitzer Prize-winning biographers Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith in their book published in 2011, the painter didn’t shoot himself, he was shot accidentally by thugs. I apologize for posting inaccurate information. Please read this following V. Note for slightly less inaccurate information about the topic.
Picasso, Woman in a Red Armchair, 1931
For most painters, starting a painting is infinitely easier than finishing one. With every brush stroke, the number of “right moves” diminishes – whereas at the beginning every move was a right move, half way through, problems begin to emerge, many times with solutions unknown. Completing a painting can be similar to solving a puzzle, and in a sense, though it is satisfying to solve a puzzle, the artist kills all the potentials it could have been, and the engaging relationship with with the work is over.
Personally, I prefer the unfinished paintings because I can see more of the making of it, the process. Not only can I see the artists’ thinking, but I can participate in it more. I also like the sustained, suspended daydream of what the painting could become, had things been a little different.
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[image_with_animation image_url=”9488″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] This is the third part of a multi day series, sharing work by my beginning figure drawing classes. Many of these students have never taken a drawing class before, nearly all of them are new to figure drawing. Rather than learning one style, we study a different approach every …
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On January 6 I posted a challenge that was inspired by John Oliver on Last Week Tonight. The challenge was to imagine what Julius Pringles looks like below the neck. We had so many fun submissions that I felt they deserved to be in their own collection. Here they are, in their crispy glory, starting …
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If you have taken or taught a class at the Seattle Artist League in the last year, you are invited to submit up to three artworks to our online show. We can’t promise we’ll show every piece, but we will show at least one artwork per person. This show is about you as an artist, so you …
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[image_with_animation image_url=”5970″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Sunrise looks like sunset, with this much smoke in the air. Yesterday every smoke alarm in my building was wailing, and my phone, no longer under my control, said “fah-yer. fah-yer.fah-yer.fah-yer.” The view outside was orange and hazy, and for a short childish moment, I thought the entire world …