People aren’t the only things that go through ‘glow ups’. Paintings also have both ugly stages and magical moments.
For me, the beginning and the end of a painting are the most beautiful.
At the beginning, the clean lines of the sketch and crisp contrast of the paint values sitting next to each other thrill me. I love looking at this stage of a painting and I love sharing it with others. Then, all goes silent for a while.
If you don’t see me sharing a painting for a while, it’s probably because I’m in the ‘messy middle’ (or I’m saving it for a ‘grand reveal’ at an exhibit).
The middle stages of a painting are ugly. Facial features get distorted, colors and values get pushed into the wrong places, hope is lost. This is the stage where I despair and get all kinds of dramatic. I think thoughts like, ‘What the heck am I doing?’, ‘Do I even know how to paint?’, ‘Can I save this piece?’, etc.
Then, things start coming back together, the essence of the person starts to be seen in the tiniest of details. Hope is restored. Glow up happens. The painter/painting relationship is restored.
So, if you ever see a painting where the painter has given her subject a black eye, just wait, the ugly stage doesn’t last forever!
