Orchard

// September 2nd, 2010 // creativity, painting

“A poem is never finished, only abandoned.”
Paul Valery

French critic & poet (1871 – 1945)

Wouldn’t it be nice to have some sort of magic wand, or marvelous technological art alarm that could replace the tricky business of determining when a creative piece is finished?

I’ve always found finishing a stressful act, whether it’s a poem, painting, blog post, or drawing (drawings are the absolute worst for me). Calling the piece finished is just so difficult.

Part of it is being critical of my own technical limits. There are always weak spots that can use a little tightening up, some editing or a wee addition to make it just so.

But too often that last little dab, or word, or pencil stroke can just throw the whole thing off. I’ve had that happen way too many times.

I called “finished” on this painting today, and signed it.

Then I saw a small section that could use a little work, so I worked it. Then I waved it round to dry those last few dabs of paint and scanned it before I could change my mind.

In the time I’ve spent writing I’ve checked out the image a few times and noticed small changes I could make.

But, no. No!

Stop it I say to myself. It’s done.

*****

How do you go with finishing your creative projects? Does it stress you out? Does it just make you sigh with relief?

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11 Responses to “Orchard”

  1. Tzaddi says:
    September 2, 2010 at 1:09 pm

    It’s so lovely! Beautiful textures and colours. Thank you for calling it done and sharing it. :)

  2. Dave Rowley says:
    September 3, 2010 at 12:45 pm

    Hello Tzaddi! Thank you.

    I’m glad you liked this–textures are something I’m really having fun with lately.

    Cheers

  3. Crafty Green Poet says:
    September 3, 2010 at 2:01 pm

    wow! this is so vivid, the colours are amazing and full of summer!

  4. Dan Goodwin says:
    September 4, 2010 at 3:24 am

    Great question Dave!

    With writing poems, I think with time and experience I just developed a “feel” for when it was done. You know like when you look at a photo of something where there’s something missing, but you can’t quite tell what’s missing, you just know something is. Like a spider with only seven legs. I write and edit until I don’t get that “something’s not quite right” feeling anymore.

    It’s like painting a brick wall with white paint. All the time there are gaps and the bricks are showing through, it’s not done. You just know when it’s finished, when it’s all white, when all the bricks are painted, even though of course you could repaint the whole wall again in blue or green, or scrub the paint all off, or just demolish the wall entirely!

    Hope that makes some sense…

    Dan

  5. noreen says:
    September 4, 2010 at 3:46 am

    I’m not a “serious” artist – I don’t do it regularly. I don’t paint (yet, maybe? but for the time being, it scares me). I do draw though, and I love my life drawing classes. For some reason I draw fast, and I finish quickly. It will be a 30 minute pose, and after 10-15mins I will have done everything I want to do and then start getting bored (or move to another place and start afresh). The moment I stop is when I look at the drawing and think it *wouldn’t* be enhanced by another line, or another highlight, or another smudge, or anything – it wou;dn’t make a difference. If I start picking at it and adding just because I’m bored, then it goes wrong.

    Writing however – completely different kettle of fish. I can read my pieces over and over and OVER again and tweak a word here, tweak a word there… For ever. I make myself stop when the ratio of {time spent re-reading for the umpteenth time} over {actual constructive changes} gets too big. Sure, it will be a tad better – probably only in my eyes though. I doubt anyone else would actually notice.

    That being said, I write mainly prose, articles, blog posts, where the content is key. With poetry, a comma will make a huge difference. So with poetry, for me, there is no final, finished, decision. (Which is why I have never shared any of my tiny output of poetry which I have spent years tweaking!) :-p

  6. Dave Rowley says:
    September 6, 2010 at 11:08 am

    Three Poets commenting in a row-I love this!

    Hi CFP, thanks for reading and commenting, I’m glad you liked the painting!

    Hi Dan, what you say totally makes sense. Poetry is really hard, I think if you write a lot, you develop that ‘not quite right’ sense, which is a valuable tool. I think it’s a sign that your intuition has kicked in.

    Hi Noreen, One of the best things about practicing multiple art forms is that you get to see some of the subtle differences in how you approach each one. I’m a tweaker of portry too, a poem is usually well over a year old before I ever submit.

    Life drawing is so cool, I’ve only had the opportunity to do it a few times, it’s very difficult but it’s also my favourite way to learn drawing.

    Cheers!

  7. Elle says:
    September 7, 2010 at 11:42 am

    Great post ! I’m a self-confessed perfectionist like most writers and artists i find it very difficult to know when to stop.

    On the other hand when writing poems I find it easier to let it pour out of me and it’s done.

    I’m getting better and try to go with my gut instinct.

    Great quote! Love your blog!

    “Perfection does not exist. You can always do better and you can always grow.” Les Brown

  8. Evelyn says:
    September 7, 2010 at 7:12 pm

    Agree, agree and agree. Sometimes I get so sick of a piece, call it finished and move on…

  9. Dave Rowley says:
    September 8, 2010 at 7:42 am

    Hi Elle,

    I love how so many of us chase perfection, even though we know it doesn’t really exist. Not for us humans, anyway.

    I like to think of perfection as an ambit claim–I’ll shoot for perfection, knowing I’ll never get there, but that’s o.k. I’ll be quite happy to end up with a slight improvement, or something learned.

    Hi Evelyn, sometimes moving on is just what’s needed. Time for the next adventure!

    Cheers

  10. Julie says:
    September 30, 2010 at 9:30 am

    Hi Dave, I really like your blog and this painting is beautiful.

  11. Dave Rowley says:
    October 3, 2010 at 5:19 pm

    Hi Julie, Thank you!

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