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Rejected
Over the last year, I've had quite a few opportunities to revisit paintings -- rethink and repaint -- hopefully to make them better. 

Revisited and Reworked
A painting I created last year for a coveted show was not accepted.  That is always disappointing.  More often than not, the painting goes into the back room and never sees the light of day.  Sometimes, if I really, really like the painting despite being rejected by the juror, I'll enter it into another show and get more success.    For that particular painting, I decided to revisit it.   I kept the parts I really liked and reworked the parts that might have seemed weak.  The Heron's Soliloquy painting was much better afterwards and went on to be juried in to another show, then later was purchased by a new collector.  (The best of all outcomes!)

Another chance to rethink, review and replaint

I am trying again to paint something worthy to be accepted into that coveted show for the current year.  This time I started pretty early and have worked steadily.   I started with a small painting called "View From The Top".    I painted it a long time ago but it had never sold, however, it was offered on my Fine Art America page and it has sold twice on that venue.  Then last Novemeber the original sold at the La Casita show.   I decided that since several different people seemed to like that one, I'd paint a larger version in hopes of getting it accepted into the upcoming show.

"View From The Top - The Torrey Pines of Santa Rosa Island" was inspired by a marvelous painting adventure in 2012.  I was lucky to join a group led by David C. Gallup aboard the dive boat, Conception out of Santa Barbara Harbor.  This was our second painting adventure aboard the Conception of four I went on.  On this trip we explored Santa Barbara Island and Santa Rosa Island - the smaller of the two.  Both are part of the chain of seven islands which make up the Channel Islands off the coast of California.  Santa Rosa Island is part of the Channel Islands National Park.
On Santa Rosa we were able to hike up to the top which was rimmed by the endangered Torrey Pines.  These pines are similar to the famous cyprus trees of Monterey, but are only found on Santa Rosa Island and part of an area around La Jolla, California.

We all painted from the boat and from different areas on the edge of the island.  It was an experience of a lifetime.

If you are a hiker or a camper or just love getting out to wonderful places, I highly recommend a trip to the Channel Islands.

Blog Posts About Painting Trips To the Channel Islands National Park
I wrote about the many adventures of four years of trips in the blogs I used to write almost daily.  If you're interested, you can click on the link below and join me in the adventure.

Various blog posts about the Channel Islands
(the oldest, from 2011 is last)

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Fear Of Failure
I started out with the tree and the distant mountains of the California coast.   First I decided that there was too much chroma in the blue so I tried to grey it a bit.  Then I decided that the sky was boring, so I pulled a long sheet of plastic wrap (Saran wrap) over the painting and tried out some cloud shapes.   I probably should have used Adobe, but it's just not like painting with a brush.   I was afraid to paint on the original.  Why???   Who knows?

Is It Done Yet?
Finally I thought I was finished with the painting.  I absolutely LOVE the depiction of the endangered Torrey Pine on the far right of the painting.   I thought the other pines were fine and I thought I was finished.

Luckily the deadline isn't right away.   I uploaded to my website the painting thinking it was done.  ......

But wait..... Is it?

I put it against the wall at the end of the bed and looked at it for a week.  I decided it needed more.  It needed changes.  

But, again, I was afraid.  I cannot explain WHY it is scary to paint over something you think is done.  Maybe because you don't really know whether it is going to be better or worse after you've made the changes.   
Then I remembered hearing Karl Dempwolf saying that he often continues painting on work even after a gallery has asked him to deliver what they've seen.  Certainly he is a master I look up to!!

I thought about it.
I looked at it.
I thought about it some more.
Then I read over my blog posts from 2012 when I actually hiked to the top of Santa Rosa Island and saw that view and those pines in person.
Those posts brought back memories and I was inspired!!  It was a sign.

I bit the bullet and pulled out my paint brushes to work on it again.

I added a path and repainted the Torrey Pines.  I think it reads better now.

But this whole process reminded me of my fellow blogger and wonderful artist Bonnie Luria who now lives in Ashville, North Carolina.  At the time she was living in St. Croix and I loved her blogs which were hilarious and always had inspiring art.  Her blog post that this process reminded me of featured a real skeleton which she had placed in front of an easel with the caption, "Is It Done Yet?"

I had my son, Jon-Paul, create an AI image something like what she had done so many years ago.  Hers, of course, was a photo of a real skeleton on a chair, but you get the point.   Are our paintings ever REALLY done?