Roundabout

There are now thirteen of these paintings.  I’ve worked further into some of them to iron out things that have irritated me, but am now going to leave them alone.  It really is one of the hardest decisions to know when something is finished. 

Roundabout painting
‘Roundabout’, Oil on paper, 5″ x 5″

 The other thing that these paintings have made me think about is working in series.  When you present a series of works to a viewer, how much time do you want or expect them to spend looking at each individual painting?  And how much of the meaning comes from them making connections between the paintings, and responding to a mood that gets built up by looking at them as a set?  These questions may consciously or subconsciously influence my decisions about the level of finish or clarity that I give each individual painting.  If I’m viewing them as a group, then I must expect the viewer to as well.  And this will influence my decisions about how I hang them.  Do I create a cluster of them, or do I space them out with plenty room around each one?   This will also depend upon the space that I manage to get for my final show.