I always seem to have a number of pieces in progress at any one time. Sometimes they are half finished and I have given up working on them – maybe they didn’t turn out how I imagined, maybe I lacked the imagination to know where to take them, maybe I just didn’t like them. Sometimes I am waiting for them to age, or paint to dry, or clay to dry, or waiting to buy materials for the next stage. I can get impatient when I’m waiting, and when the urge to create appears I will think of something else to start on. Sometimes I will go back to something I’d written off as unfinishable years ago and some inspiration appears like magic… and the creative process continues.
I have 2 new pieces in progress at the moment and am trying to continue with a piece from 2 years ago (but I find it a dark and unsettling piece so I’m not sure whether I want to continue!).
Is this the same for everyone? Or do some people have the discipline to finish one piece before starting the next? Do you show anyone “work in progress”?
Finding Something from Nothing 
Sometimes I think it helps to leave something and come back to it… to give a different perspective… after concentrating on something for too long. Though there is also the possibility that by coming back to it later on you could overdo it and ruin what you had achieved so far. I don’t show ‘work in progress’ usually – more often I just show the finished drawing/painting. It probably wouldn’t help anyone to see how I produce my work… as I tend to create out of rough doodles that later become a piece of work… sometimes out of just a line and curve.
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I don’t normally show anyone work in progress. But when a piece is finished and I am happy with it, it is quite interesting (for myself and for other people) to have taken some photographs and see the progression from nothing to something. I find it fascinating how a piece changes – sometimes by you and sometimes almost by itself. I quite like looking at different stages of a painting – from blank canvas to the finished painting.
I find myself stopping when I have run out of ideas or ability, or when I’m bored and have looked at the same piece for too long.
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True. It is interesting to see the different stages to a finished piece. I have sometimes taken photographs of the different stages that led up to some of my artworks. Though not always helpful to show the photographs to other people: especially if they see one out of a set of photographs… thinking that one is the finished piece… when that one is just a stage towards the finished piece! Something I did find amusing was when I drew a pencil pattern on canvas and asked someone’s opinion and got a negative response. The next day they saw the same canvas but as it was turned to a different angle they thought it was a different pattern and they commented that it was nice. I don’t know if that could work for you… changing the angle of looking at a piece of work… so that it could be seen in a different way?
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I tend to want to finish first. The garden, however, is a continuing work in progress, and does get shown
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In watercolor it is difficult to take pictures because i must work in the water. But I can rework an old watercolor to correct or to change some things and i can take a picture to see the difference but for me!
I have once explain the mistake i have done and how to correct it with 3 pictures…
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I have HEAPS of unfinished things called Look at Later. And others I feel I’ll ruin but realise others may regard them as rather slight which I call Experimental. What I keep forgetting to do is to make a note of how I did something. I try and look through everything after a break and rip up what I then regard as very poor! I like your image with the cleft.
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Work in progress? I see three finished pieces that are great. I talk to them to find out what’s on their minds 🙂 I like watching work in progress. I learn a lot from it and love to see how it develop to a finish piece. I so know what you mean by sometimes never finish. I am the same. If a new idea pops up, the old one have to step aside sometimes.
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I’m always working on more than one thing or reading three different books, instead of just finishing one of them before I start another. Some people just work that way:)
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I guess you just need to be in the right mood at the right time in the right place to get the most out of something. So having a choice of things to do makes a lot of sense.
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Thank you for sharing your art talent.
Just go with the flow, wu wei .
You enjoy and that the is the Way._/\_
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I recognize what you are sating! I have a lot of unfinished works that just have to “rest” for a while. Suddenly I go back and create something I like from it (or don’t like!). I have several examples of successful works done in two stages w-i-d-e apart in time! I once showed the progress of a work as I did it, which created a lot of buzz, but usually I don’t show so much of my unfinished projects! Like your post! 😄
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Thank you for the comments. Love your paintings (especially the snow scenes).
Sometimes I find a piece of work difficult to finish. Half way through I hit a brick wall and can’t find a way through. Walking away and returning later lets me see the piece in a new light and my imagination starts to work again. Sometimes a 5 minute break is enough. Sometimes a week. A year. Many years! 🙂
I am stuck with a piece on a large piece at the moment. I don’t seem to find the time to go back and finish it. But I know this is just an excuse – I think I don’t know how to finish it. (Maybe I will put a picture of it half finished on the blog.)
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I usually just work on one piece at s time
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oops! one piece at a time. usually my paintings only take an hour or two and I work with very fluid mediums and have to do it all while it’s wet. with heavy bodied acrylics, it’d a totally different story. I usually have several going at the same time. usually I finish all of them, but a few get painted over it go into the circular file. if I get really stuck or it’s just fighting me, I give up on it. btw your blog is a very interesting read! 😃☀⛅🌈
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A few years ago, I visited Florence in Italy which is famous because (among other great works of art) it has the statue of David my Michelangelo and that is truly a magnificent piece of sculpture. But Florence also has another museum which features statues by Michelangelo which are considered “unfinished” sculptures by some (http://www.museumsinflorence.com/musei/David_by_michelangelo.html) but to other experts, they are the finished work – representing captives in the stone. I have been lucky enough to see them and I agree that they are amazing just as they are.
So maybe you are not “stuck”! Maybe you are finished – maybe it is already Art and does not need any more work. what else would it need to finish it?
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Sometimes a like a “unfinished” piece of work better than a “finished” piece. The unfinished piece is still full of possibilities and leaves more for the imagination to fill in the missing “finished” parts.
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Ooooh, so many unfinished pieces are sitting in my room, waiting to get finished or simply waiting for attention long lost…you are definitely not alone, my dear! I truly like the pics of your unfinished works, especially the middle one – keep goin’!!
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