This is a detail of a recently finished piece… I’m proud of it! (See the full image here.)

It was at one point last week “wrecked” — the colors were awful (too “Valentine’s Day” for me), and I truly wondered if I could pull it off. I thought out loud (while talking to my friend Karine), “I’m going to pull all the color off and start over.” Voicing that aloud, I went home and did it. And within an hour I had “saved the piece.

Moral: Don’t give up (but you already knew that).

That said, there are many paintings that I DO give up on. I’ve learned to trust myself on that one. If a painting makes me MAD to look at, it’s got to go. If I’ve spent a reasonable amount of time trying to save the darn thing, and it still makes me cringe, I put it in a big plastic trash bag and throw it away.

I’ve never regretted getting rid of the “bad energy” of a hopeless painting.

What are your thoughts?