Today I wrecked a painting. There is no evidence left, it’s in the bin and I’ve deleted the WIP photos. I knew at some point I needed to stop adding more detail but I simply couldn’t help myself. It was a shame as I really liked it before I trashed it with busyness and random whitening out to try and rescue it from all the needless detail which in the end turned it into a hot mess!
That’s what I noticed today …. I paint and collage almost blindly. I stop looking at the bigger picture and just keep loading on the layers.
I lose sight of what my intentions for the painting are and what I liked about the composition right at the beginning. Somewhere along the way the line that gets lost.
That is unless I keep myself very calm, is that possible? Well, I slow myself down at least and limit the elements I’m allowed to add. I keep myself away from any quiet areas of negative space and focus on enhancing only one part of the full composition.
To practice this I took 4 A3 basic compositions of rollered and stencilled paint from an old sketchbook and challenged myself to only add a few pieces of collage to each.
Phew! I did it. Now I’ve just got to resist the urge to just add … maybe a line or two.
Step away from the paintings Sally!
Sally Harrison Artist 
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