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Art theory Oil Painting Painting Still Life

Tea and Lemon, An “Almost” Painting

Tea and Lemon on Lavender, oil on linen panel, 8x8"
Tea and Lemon on Lavender, oil on linen panel, 8×8″

I make a lot of “almost” paintings: they are almost what I intended; I almost like them, if only… (insert painting problem here). I’ve learned to appreciate the learning process and the parts that work and learn from my mistakes. But I haven’t yet learned to leave “almost” paintings alone and start another one.

Instead I keep working them until I reach the point where the underlying problem (e.g. poor composition, icky colors of background or subject, bad drawing, too overworked, or just not enough skill to pull off what I was going for) becomes insurmountable. Then I make a note of what I discover and what went wrong and give myself an assignment of something to study and practice on the next one.

With Tea and Lemon, I was happy with almost everything except the background which I reworked several times. I’m tempted to mess with it some more so I’m posting it to make myself stop.

16 replies on “Tea and Lemon, An “Almost” Painting”

Now that’s a good title for an art exhibition or at least one cupboard of our paintings and drawings ‘Almost Right’. Too many of them!

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Oh another loveliy painting! You captured everything so well- all the details just right so who worries about the background?

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Thank you Sally! It’s so reassuring to hear your words. It’s so true about being our own worst critics. I try to appreciate the nice parts but so often my eye just goes right to the “problem” that nobody else even sees. Jana

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That knowing when to stop…..it is certainly a stumbling block of rme!! This looks great, though, and I agree with your other commentors, you’re being too hard on yourself and the background is not a factor because of the skillful painting of the subjects here! File this in the ‘Aced it!’ cabinet! Or better yet, frame it and hang it on your wall!

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What do you think is wrong with the background? It looks good to me, so how about helping me learn how to be more discerning? I really can’t figure out what bugs you here! And I love the way you evaluate your paintings – it is a great learning tool for me. Thanks!

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Hi Jana, Well initially I didn’t really paint what I saw, tried to kind of generally do the cloth and also didn’t get the color/light/value right. First it was too blue, then too purple, then too dark, etc. Then I didn’t like where the folds were in the composition. I guess what I ended up with is OK now, but I think I need to spend more time with setting up compositions so that I can paint what I see and not have to change things too much after the painting is underway. Jana

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Well I was not distracted by the background at all when I first looked at the painting… My eyes went to the tea in the cup and then all around the cup and saucer. After reading the post I looked again and I see what you are talking about. I think it is just too deep and blue in areas and the contrast is a little distracting. The gray shade at the bottom of the painting may do better. But as I said, it was only after you pointed it out…lol I love it and think it is beautiful ! Thank You for posting. I have soo many “Almost” paintings I totally understand. Kari

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Thanks for the close look and taking the time to share your thoughts. What you describe is exactly the problems I was seeing too. But I’m glad to hear that you liked it and that it took my pointing out difficulties for you to see them. Jana

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