Contemporary artists & photography | Online Art Magazine | ArtReview

How do you know a painting is finished?

When asked how he knew that he’d finished a painting, Jackson Pollock famously replied: “How do you know you’ve finished making love?”
Figurative painter Euan Uglow described it like this: “ I don’t really finish a painting, it stops.”
I often feel that after a certain point, working further on a picture makes it into something else - another painting, perhaps.
I would be interested to know how it is for you.
Thank you.

Tags: art, figurative, koroshilov, painting, review

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mark Talib on November 6, 2010 at 20:25

I think a painting is finished when you get to a point where chance has taken it to an unexpected level. When one looks at the work there is a feeling of wonder at how it got to that point.

Permalink Reply by Bjørn Eriksen on February 9, 2011 at 12:40

I agree to most of the comments here, it is good stuff. But there is a thing missing I think. Discussion about the conscious part of us, and the subconscious part. Which part sees the painting as finished!?

When I teach, I often see that my students in the beginning of a course, very often wants to correct the painting, or the drawing, in a very early stage of the process. They make a "wrong line" and erase it immediately!

In my world, that "wrong line" is the subconscious mind, telling us: this is boring, try this instead!!!

But of course there are many ways to work with a painting. But my point is, that we often ruin a painting, because the conscious mind don't accept flaws or "wrong lines" so easily. So when you put an "unfinished" painting away for a while, and then go back to it, it is suddenly "finished", and you didn't do a thing - how can it be!? To me the answer is clear: your conscious mind is now accepting the facts, the subconscious has now become conscious!!!

So the great challenge is to be both conscious, and subconscious, when you paint!

If one can do that, it is much easier to see when the painting is finished, accepting the "flaws" and maybe even love them!

Permalink Reply by Valery Koroshilov on February 17, 2011 at 22:42

It is certainly a very interesting and relevant point to distinguish between the conscious and the subconscious, as they relate to the perception of "the finished".

Incidentally, you might have noticed, Bjorn, earlier in our discussion someone had mentioned that the Dutch painter Karel Appel said: "he could sit in front of a painting, doing nothing, just watching it, sometimes a whole afternoon, and so finish the painting with his eyes, just by looking at it". Perhaps, that is similar to what you call "the subconscious turning into the conscious"?

Permalink Reply by Peter Leighton on December 5, 2011 at 13:36

If you do over step the mark, and begin to destroy your painting, make sure you destroy it well!

Permalink Reply by JANPOLJAN on December 7, 2011 at 23:04

I'm just sure that I finished a painting when it comes out of my way. So sometimes I feel like adding something when they are already exposed. what I do then? I remove them my vision. Mainly my paintings have several plans, several pictures into one.