"Culling" Paintings - It's tough but it's for your own good.

I LIKE this painting; it shows my intention...the beauty of Jell-O in frosted glasses, looking like jewels and gems . Having been a gem buyer, I can assure you of the similarities (and the differences-gems don't melt under light). I have two Jell-O paintings hanging now. One is in my Boston studio and this one, Broken Jewel Jell-O,is at the Copley Society through June 28th. It was juried into the show by George Nick, a much admired, respected teacher and master painter.It's a wonderful show!

But what you won't see anywhere are the three Jell-O paintings that I did before this. I decided those paintings failed me in my intentions and executions. I destroyed them and threw them out. I "culled" my paintings. Culling work is difficult for many artists to do. You can observe this in their body of work because certain pieces stand out as perfection while others may swim in the sea of mediocrity (or worse).

Most fine painters will do this and each of those painters have their own reasons for doing so. For me I prefer to look at the best of my paintings showing me what I did right. The mediocre paintings only tell me what I did wrong. And so I learn from those, throw them out and move along to painting what I feel is right and successful.
And yes, sometimes it's very tough to do.I see something in the painting that I liked very much and think "that can work". But in the end I know in my heart that it doesn't really live up to what I aspire to. Away it goes.