Happy Endings.
The hardest part of painting for any artist is knowing when to finish and how to go about creating closure for a project. This seems to apply no matter whether it is big or small and whether it has been created by large community groups or a single individual who works alone. One of the hardest aspects of painting is knowing when to finish, how to finish and how to present the artwork once it has been completed.
When an artist works professionally she needs to be able to quote price and timelines from the beginning. The timeline is a rough working quide. It is always very unlikely that the project will run strictly according to time. This is why I plan the project as carefully as possible. With out some kind of reference point paintings could drag on for endless eons, making the clients impatient and my business could become bogged down in unfinished projects.
I find closure hard to achieve. If it were not for deadlines and commitments I would never really finish many of my murals and projects. There is always some little aspect of the artwork that could bear with improving. Can you imagine this tendency amplified by 20 or so in a community setting? Each member of the team wanting to go back and fix up 'just one lil' thing?' So the act of closure often requires that the artist/s is prepared to "Let Go" of the project and finish it off when the allocated time has arrived.
To do this I try to work consistently. I endeavour to keep the level of detail even through out the space provided. This ensures that the mural doesn't have some highly detailed patches dwindling out to some that are merely underpainting. When I want to contrast highly structured detail against fluid 'under painting' style - I choose to focus on small aspects of the scene, throwing them into highlight - focusing on small detailed patches. This allows me to guide the focus of the viewer on to a particular aspect of the mural. By doing this I would hope to evoke a particular emotive response.
Events managed over a few days are a different matter. The VIVA BRISBANE.....CELEBRATE LIFE!!!! was an event that was staged over a few days and had a completion date from the outset. I had not anticipated and allowed for the degree to which people would want my attention. So it was hard to finish the project on time. The final piece had to be scaled down. I had to settle for what eventuated. After the event the drawing was scanned for an appropriate focus and then cropped and chopped until one aspect could be framed for presentation. This allowed me to come up with a much smaller painting, which may later be donated to the cause for which the celebration was intended.
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