The Day a Painting Failed

There is a particular kind of failure that only shows up after four or five layers, when a painting that looked resolved at every earlier stage suddenly refuses to hold together.

The painting that failed this August had been going well for three weeks. Then, in a single afternoon, it stopped being about anything. The composition was still correct. The colour was still considered. But whatever had made the early version feel necessary was gone.

«I've learned not to trust a painting that looks finished too early.»

I scraped most of it back and started again from the charcoal stage. The second version is slower and, I think, more honest about what it's actually trying to do.