I've Been Away Awhile

Nero Fiddled, 16 x 20, Commissioned Work

Elizabeth W. Seaver

sold

 

Not literally away, but away from writing and posting on my blog. You may imagine me, paint-stained and wild-haired, industriously stacking the canvases against the wall, hoping to have enough work to fill the amazing Bistro Bethem. 

 

The real kicker, as you painters know, is to have work you are proud of and what looks to be a body of work when it all goes on the wall. Interestingly, though my work will have been created within about a six month period, it changes as I go along. Earlier paintings don't fit as well with the later works as I would like. Which leads to fiddling.

 

Anybody else have that problem? I can't leave them alone. I have already painted over two of my earlier works and while the consensus on one is that it is a good thing, the jury is still out as to whether the latest painting on top of the second is better that the original one.

A wise teacher once said to me, "Put down the paintbrush and back away from the canvas." 

I hear her voice in my head, but just like that petulant child who wants what she wants enough to try throwing a tantrum to get it, I keep painting anyway. Sometimes.

But when one has the inspiration of the real Nero the Cat, well, one is careful to stop in time.