Be Your Own Toughest Critic!

One thing that really is part of being an artist is becoming your own toughest critic! After not painting for years and diving back in about 10 years ago, I was thrilled when I put anything artistic onto paper. With the years this exhilaration wears off and with every painting or sketch you become hypercritical; ''mistakes'' pop out at you from every corner and exhilaration turns into exasperation. You look, judge, compare and decide .... is it a keeper or is the work heading for the bin (although I really don’t think chucking work out is a good idea) and then there are those works which you somehow or other just can't decided upon, zero or hero! 

This is one from last year, it just won’t leave my head. It hung around on the easel for donks, then sat maturing for aaaggggeeeesss and still my inner critic is divided. 

When starting a painting, I (usually) have a plan, an intention, a direction..... this one was no different. A limited palette, landscape and focal point the movement in those fabulous grasses. Summer mood, laid back, perhaps lying down among those grasses and looking out across the river. 

Looking at the painting, all boxes ticked but something still bugs me about it, some days I like it and some days my fingers itch to pop in some flowers among the grasses. Being my own toughest critic is proving tough with this one. Chuck it, heave it, bin it, rework it but something in my head says stop, leave it alone. Forget it, move on but Shameless Summer Blues still circles in my head. 

Different blues around here in the north of Germany we had minus 9 at the weekend at everything was coated in an icy coat of dripping water. Maybe thoughts of trying to capture all the icy trees and landscape will drive the summer thoughts out of my head and help me find my inner critic.