How do you know when a painting is finished?

JUST US by Candace Platz

My 96 year old mother-in-law (who served on the board of the Baltimore Museum of Art for decades) once asked me that. At the time I said, “Sometimes I don’t.”

But it was a great question, and I’ve thought about it many times since. My answer has changed. Once I might have said, “When I’m no longer interested in working on it.” I have since learned that while sometimes I do lose interest in a painting, later I am always prompted to go back to it. I think because I have developed a new relationship with confusion and am less concerned with “not wrecking it."

Surrendering to uncertainty makes space for a revelation that is beyond strategy or skill. Expecting the unexpected allows me to be open, even when the work seems like a muck. I’ve learned to let the muck breathe and to make a practice of being willing to be lost. Some of my favorite paintings gave me the most trouble, got me the most lost.

There is a wonderful TED talk by Uri Alon: "Why science demands a leap into the unknown.” Highly recommended for artists too. He believes that all creativity requires confusion and uncertainty. From him, I have learned not to give up on paintings. Eventually, I finish them all. If I give up on a painting when it is terrible, it will be a terrible painting forever and always I don’t have any terrible paintings.

How do I know they are finished?

I know my journey with a painting is almost over because when I fall in love with it, eyes wide open to all its imperfections and humanity as well as its clarity and singularity.

When I feel that love, I know my painting is done.

(Or almost done. Maybe it could still use just a little more yellow, down there in the corner…)