The secret gallery’s blog

One of the things I love about painting with oils is that you can paint over it again and again; you can be really free and experimental and simply wipe it away or paint over it if you don’t like it! I love the way these layers build up over time. Today I was working on four different paintings, that I had started over the last couple of weeks. They were all at an in between stage. One was of a pilgrim in a forest, another of a horses head, another was a diver/astronaut, and the forth was of a woman changing a baby’s nappy! This little one makes me smile a lot! Many of my painting go through lots of different lives and look like completely different paintings, though it is all part of the process and journey of painting; without going through each stage they would not reach their final destination. Some people say that paintings are never finished they just stop at interesting places. For me a painting is finished when something in side you says stop! You cant do a thing more to it because it is complete. Sometimes I paint and wipe it away, the painting begins to look like a worn rag itself, but the wonderful thing is that in a few days it becomes dry, and armed with some new energy the old worn rag painting, can become miraculously one of the best paintings you have ever done! Sometimes painting come out easily and sometimes they are a struggle, I suppose it is about not getting complacent!

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