"Art is never finished, only abandoned." -- Leonardo da Vinci.

hi Alpal and Danny, yes,sometimes I get caught up in the moment,i will accomplish a technique and get all excited then I will stand back and look at the rest of painting and get upset or mad or just not happy with it, After time the painting begins to grow on me. You know art is supposed to stir the emotions, if nothing else I accomplish that and that what drives me to do it

Hi everyone. Alpal... that happens to me all the time.

Years ago in art class, my teacher told me that at some point I had to say enough, it's done. Otherwise I would keep working on it - actually there's a point of overworking an image.

I've overpainted many canvases and if news reports of x-rayed painting of the old masters we are not the first to be dissatisfied. We are in good company. :)

I think that maybe 1 of 10 pieces that I do are works I'm satisfied with. But that's okay. As long as I know that it's all work in progress and each failure is a learning experience.

Interesting Observation.

In simple terms the answer is no.

I believe there is an old myth story about a security guard at the Louver who was noticed as small man was actually painting on one of the pieces in the gallery.

He yelled for help and they subdued this individual only to discover that it was the artist himself, some famous turn of the century impressionist, who had been so dissatisfied with his work that he felt compelled to “tweak” it while it was hanging in the museum (smile).

Monet suffered from intense bouts of artistic depression. We know from the letters of one of his maids at Giverny that in the fall when the gardeners would pile the leaves to be burned, Monet would come out of his studio with armfuls of paintings which he would throw upon the fire and burn, who knows how often he did this, or how many works are lost because of this.

However I can say from experience that how often (or how deeply) I feel conflicted about my work is dependant upon how insecure I feel about my subject matter, my technique, my direction with the piece, and about myself as an artist.

A good sculpture friend of mine once said that the art, is not the result of the work, the art is everything an artist has to do, in themselves and within the world, to bring the work into existence, that is the art.

Take care,

Joseph

It depends on the painting but, yes I think if a painting is more dear to my heart, such as a picture of my children I tend to have mixed emotions about it. I usualy try to get somones opinion who can be nonbias.

When I am not satisfied I usualy put it away and look at it another day or paint over it.

I believe that happens to most artists. I definetely learn from my mistakes or my mistakes sometime make the painting better in some instances.lol