To Crop or Not?

On my easel at the moment is a summery vineyard, bucolicy landscapey painting, well that is my thing, isn’t it? But after an enthusiastic start a feeling of déjà-vu struck, this palette which I was enjoying, started to remind me of a painting that I did in the past and that I didn’t like! All enthusiasm gone, a feeling of hopelessness set in and because the hated painting was in this format too, I started to swither about giving it the chop! 

Sometimes a good crop can tighten up a painting and give you a more modern or interesting composition, which can’t be bad, and you can see the line on the right where I wanted to pull everything together. A sleepless night was the result,  nothing unusual because as I mentioned before, insomnia has been a constant companion since my late 30's. This morning a quick pop into the studio made me think that the crop isn’t such a good idea, why? Well, the crop I chose would push the sweep of the vines directly into the middle of the painting, usually a no go, although I sometimes like to break that ''rule'' but I'm not too confident about my vines, this is my first attempt at thwacking them in and plus I can’t decide if this painting is about the vines, the trees, the grasses or the globe thistles in the foreground, so you see my dilemma! 

The traditional landscape format I often find quite boring but on the other hand it does add a sense of vastness to the scene which I like, decisions, decisions …. I think I'll run with the complete painting and if I change my mind I can still crop! As for the palette, yes it is still grating but maybe that’s sortable too, if the worse comes to the worst the bin is waiting or the bottom drawer, artwork in the bottom drawer is like hiding something in Davy Jone's locker, except what ends up in the bottom drawer is seldom treasure. 

Never mind inspiration or should I say ''vinspiration'' is in my garden, yes these grapes are on a vine in my garden!