Saved

A few days ago I started this Musing with charcoal and acrylic paint when about half-way through the wheels came off!

Well, not literally speaking, of course, but figuratively - one side was going swimmingly well but the other side was descending into a quagmire of confusion. Can one person's mind be like that? All clarity, sweetness and light on the right and utter tripe on the left?

Even though I consider these Musings be be whatever they turn out to be I still have the desire to "make something of it"...to satisfy my need for compositional structure. I ended that session by blocking out the entire left-hand side with a very tasteful grey sludge and left it alone in the dark to sort itself out.

A few days later when I got back into the studio there it was still waiting for me, accusingly, on the easel. What to do?

Take it down and start again afresh or...a wee still voice of intuition was whispering in my right ear "c'mon David, all is not lost, there is still some work to be done here, don't give up, what you have is one side partially resolved and the other a mid-tone blank waiting for inspired musing!

And it comes in the form of the blackest black I can muster, a few deft strokes and what was unsatisfactory before is now just as it should be:

Subconscious Musing: "12 February 2013". Mixed media on sugar paper, 59x86cm.

Hurrah...I can now move on to a happy days painting :o)