After a 2-month break on this painting for a soul-inspiring trip to New Orleans, this painting is now underway. Again.
Part of my process is that just when I think I’m finished, I go back in to fix something or make it better. Just a quick little change, I tell myself. Shouldn’t take more than a few flicks of the brush. Ten minutes, tops.
Inevitably, this causes other adjustments to be made in order to fit better with the new part. And since everything in the image is interdependent, when the balance changes even slightly the whole damn thing needs a readjustment. What was once an almost finished painting now becomes the underpainting to a new one. So when you look at one of my finished pieces, you may be looking many paintings — one on top of the other. It’s exasperating sometimes, but that’s the way it works around here.