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Sometimes you just have to go back and fix a few things.

I don’t often change a piece of art once I have deemed it “finished”.  Even if it stays on the walls in my own home, I usually leave it alone.  Once I let it go, it’s done.

But rarely, I will see something that from the beginning has stuck with me as just not quite there.  It has to nag at me for a while, but finally, possibly years later, I will pick up the chalk or paint brush and do a bit of editing.  Sometimes I will ruin it for good, but then again…

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Recently I was allowed to revisit “White Garden”, a favorite painting of mine that I did after a visit to Sissinghurst, a National Trust garden in Kent, England.  At the very end of painting the scene, when I wasn’t quite sure it was finished, I added a figure walking down the path.  A vision of Vita Sackville-West, the poet and gardening writer who created the garden in the 1930s.

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But it always caught my attention when I looked at the work, and over the years I realized she detracted from the real star…the magical white garden.  So this month, I removed her.  There is a hint of white where she was. Just part of the garden.  I am very pleased with the result. Your full attention is once again on the magnificent roses and garden beyond.

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Sometimes a tweak is more subtle.  I couldn’t quite put my finger on what was bothering me or if anything was really bothering me enough to try a change. It was more a lack of energy than anything else.

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A few hours later, a bit of work, and some additional strokes of conte, and it was much more agreeable to me. I’m not even sure why.

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It became more complex and layered and could join the other drawings in the series with pride. Sunflowers in a field.

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For now, I am happy with them.