Get rid of substandard work
 

Robert Genn puts out a "Twice Weekly Letter of insight and inspiration for your artistic career." http://www.painterskeys.com

Here is a paragraph from his most recent letter entitled "Body of Work": I'm going to go and feed my fireplace right now...

Karin,

I tend to keep 99% of my old substandard works. I still have the very first portrait I ever did of my father. They all seem to have a sentimental value to me. It also reminds me of how bad I was before and the progress I am making.

I produce a lot of work and I'd like to think that I'll keep only a very small percentage of the substandard stuff for sentimental reasons.

There are two that I'm keeping for now. The first portrait I ever painted and also a self portrait that makes me cringe, keeps me humble and reminds me of how far I've come. I will keep them in the back of the closet and they will seldom if ever see the light of day. Eventually I plan to destroy them.

Burn it, rip it up!
 

Karin,

Oh yes, do it! I have torn up drawings on $38 pieces of paper, knifed large cavasses on 13DP Claessens, that I spent months on. When I left one of my studios years ago, the other tenants went through my trash, reclaimed some drawings and had them framed. I have my eye on my Sagendorf winner for the next slash and burn. I feel I have done only 3 or 4 paintings worth saving and I only like the work I have done in the last few years.

It keeps the studio uncluttered (hah!) and my output seemingly dear!

There are only 34 paintings attributed to Vermeer, he averaged only 2 paintings a year, but what paintings they were!

It seems today that there are so many painters, most rather dreadful, painting on acres and acres of canvas, ruining reams of beautiful paper, you need many landfills for just them! Georgia O'Keefe talked about the many miles of canvas she trashed! I do not want to add to the pollution and garbage of this world.

Sincerely,

I had a similar thing happen years ago. I stupidly tossed a stack of life drawings (in watercolor on expensive paper) into a trash barrel. I do not know who removed them (all unsigned), but years later I have seen one framed in a gallery on Cape Cod and another one framed in an antique shop in Boston.

I've learned my lesson and it was painful. Right now I ruthlessly use scissors, knives and my fireplace to get rid of the work I am unhappy with.

Indeed, the world does not need any more crappy artwork.

My very first portrait (and my very first oil painting) was ala prima. It was pretty darn good from the neck up and embarassingly awful from the neck down. I keep it because part of it is better than the work I do now. After I "learned how to paint," I lost a certain something that I wish to find again. Maybe we should start a thread on "first efforts" sometime?

Merry
 

Merry Christmas, MOM!-it's what artists have done for ages.

Am I missing something here? Tim, I don't understand your comment.

Lesson
 

The paintings that don't quite come together "not ready for primetime" make wonderful gifts to friends and family, mostly the latter.

Ahhhhh...now I get it, thanks. But I disagree as it is painful for me to look at my "failed" pieces.

If I gave one of these to a friend or family member, I would surely not want to visit them and see that nasty thing hanging on their wall. How could I expect them to treasure something that I consider garbage?

In any event, I produce a lot less "failed" pieces now than I used to. Nowadays my "slash and burn" episodes don't occur nearly as often because I am better at "correction."

My problem is that I have a lot of unfinished canvases that are in the "debatable" range.

I ask myself, am I still interested enough in the subject matter to finish them? Will the paintings ever get good enough to keep?

I need to make some decisions on those canvases and then purge at least some of them out of my garage and studio!

I do have a stack of "thinkabouts." The more I learn, the more I can correct errors. This stack is dwindling and the "send to gallery" stack is growing. If you think that someday you can save it, hang on for a while longer and give it a try. I trust that you'll know when to throw in the towel and cut your losses.

I suppose the main problem with those ones is that I get bored of them and want to move on to something new (or finish the commissions that I'm supposed to be working on!)

Ironically
 

Karin, it's one really funny situation. You call to say you're coming over and they run to hang the work while you're hoping they would take it down! Neither can be honest. ;)

Here is another view on this topic from "Robert Genn's Twice Weekly Letter; Insight and inspiration for your artistic career." You can suscribe to this at: http://www.painterskeys.com The following is quoted with Robert's permission.

I can relate
 

Tim,

Boy can I relate. My mother has a wall full of crappy still life paintings I've done. Every time I go over there I want to rip 'em off the walls. She shows them to anyone who has the patience and kindness to suffer through it. AAACK!!!!

Maybe you could paint her some new ones in exchange for giving you the old ones back.

Can I sell it?
 

Just a thought that hasn't been addressed on this thread yet.

If someone stumbles upon one of my pieces which I consider subpar, but wants to purchase it, should I go ahead and sell it? Being that I'm an up and coming (read: starving) artist, I would feel grateful that someone liked it enough to want to buy it.

Maybe later in my career it'll come back to haunt me, but I'd probably risk it for a sale now. If someone asks 30 years from now, I'll just tell them my little brother painted it. :D

Any thoughts on this?

I would not sell a piece of my art that I considered substandard. My problem is that some of my old work that I thought was pretty good at the time makes me cringe a little bit now.

How is selling art that you know is bad any different than selling poor quality food to an unsuspecting person or cheating someone by charging a fee for a service poorly done?

If you need money, don't quit your day job until your artwork is up to snuff. Just because someone is dumb about art doesn't mean that we have the right to take advantage of them. As a full time painter I'd like to think that this is still an honorable profession.

Point well taken. My little brother's name shall remain untarnished...

People love paintings for many reasons that have nothing to do with the artist's definition of "quality". A piece may consist of clashing colors, weak drawing, etc. but still
evoke a strong feeling or a reminder of a special person or place in another viewer.

If a piece I have done doesn't speak to me and I feel I can now do technically "better work", who am I to decide for someone else who feels an emotional connection to it that it's "substandard"?

I want to be proud of all the work I have out there in the world, but my reasons for being proud of something may not be the same reasons someone else may love it. If they love one of my paintings, maybe they feel something in in that I don't. It doesn't mean I want to to pull the wool over their eyes to make a few dollars.

Michele, I understand that someone may love something about a piece of artwork that I do not. This happened to me recently. What I found was that the person was pretty easy to please, so I reworked the piece to my satisfaction with the element they liked intact. They got the painting they wanted and I had the satisfaction that I sold something that I could live with.

Also, don't discount the fact that some folks see the standard price tag for our work but don't want to pay the full price. They are really "bargain basement shopping" and delight in finding something they percieve may have "value someday" and try to flatter us into parting with it for cheaps.

This is another good reason to destroy really bad work - before someone sees it.

This being the Caf

I wish I had been around to read this thread a few weeks earlier. I had made a couple of experiments in oil painting on some canvas paper, just to learn about mixing paint and painting it on. I had made very quick sketches from magazine covers, not even worrying about getting the proportions right, to have something to try to copy.

I had dinner with my sister and her husband, and they wanted to see what I had been up to. My brother-in-law asked me if I was going to frame them, and I said, "No, they are just experiments; I'm going to throw them away." He asked for them, and without thinking I gave them to him.

Well, now he is showing them to one and all as demonstrations of my artistic talent. I cringe to see the drawing errors, and the horrible muddy messes where I tried blending colors. He is so proud of me, and can't understand that I don't want these to represent me.

Ah, the joy of alla prima painting. If it's bad wipe it off before it dries or paint over it. I have used the same canvas about 5 times for open studio studies. I have framed a few recycled canvases and so far they have not had any bad effects to having been painted on a used canvas.

If it was truly good at that time but you later feel it is substandard I would advise (especially for the most accomplished artists among you) that you give it another day or two to reconsider its destruction. Just because a piece is not your best effort history may look at it in a much different light than you do. What would you give to see the early work of Rembrandt that may have been destroyed by his own hand?

Especially for the more accomplished artists out there, you often have a much more critical eye than others. Sharon, having seen some of Georgia O'Keefe's early work and felt that it was some of her best work I hate to think of the beautiful works we are deprived of because of over zealous destruction of so called substandard work.

Although I would admit a bad piece of work can be detrimental to your career, especially if you include it in your portfolio, a piece that is just not your best effort but still a decent piece of art might just not be as bad as you feel it is.

Also I think that the worst work of the best artist is still better than the best work of many who just think they are good. So destroy if you must but just don't get too carried away.

Also consider the changing taste of art. Your own modesty may have you destroying a piece that might hang in a museum retrospective of your work some day. And who knows, it might even be considered by some to be one of your best works. Of course it may also be the horror of this thought that is motivating it's destruction.

I often wonder what works of great masters we all will never see just because being the perfectionists they were motivated them to destroy work we today would consider to be a masterpiece.

Oh well. Just don't breathe the fumes from the fire, Karin, and have a glass of wine as it burns as the fumes go up the chimney. Think of the fortune we could have if we had all the lost works of the great masters.