The Message: Just Do It

"Angel 7" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Paper, 22" x 11" 

Challenge Day 4: Get A Move On

Taking on Leslie Saeta's 30 Day Challenge once again moves me to finish up some of my "starts" and I imagine the figure in this painting is relieved to finally be released from "painting limbo" where everything is either "just almost" or "not nearly" or simply "I'll get to you later so just chill." 

This is what I started with today.

 The painting was in this stage for many months. I think that the previous 30 day challenge and the card painting binge were all necessary steps in the creative process that led to my willingness to "just do it."  Here is a photo of what I thought might be the finished painting. 

I stopped long enough to consider it "done" but soon I felt that all of the business in the robe and the background was detracting from what I really wanted to emphasize, the iconic nature of the figure, its antiquity, its ethereal and in some way "sacred" nature. 

I had to risk covering up that which I thought was pretty - and I was not sure whether I was doing "the right thing" - whatever that is. Who gets to decide what's right in this case? I had the feeling that in this instance "less is more." It was only after I finished that I saw what it was that I had been after all along. Once I removed the trappings I recognized the figure which is present in many of my paintings.