Thoughts from a radio conversation. . . .

Yesterday, while I was in the car, I had the radio on and was listening with half an ear to a discussion about the economy, financial issues etc. My ears perked up when I heard this statement:

"If you don't have enough information about a subject, your imagination kicks in and fills in the blanks."

All of a sudden my mind took some quick turns and transported me back to something the late Monte Guynes told his art classes about ten years ago. He said "Don't finish the painting for them--let THEM do that!" He was a firm believer in NOT finishing every detail of a painting--of letting the viewer put themselves into it, in leaving something mysterious about it so that the viewer could finish it and fill it in with his/her own imagination. "If you don't have enough information about a painting, your imagination kicks in and fills in the blanks." And the odds are that your imagination completes it in a way that satisfies YOU and makes it complete and often becomes the reason that you painted the painting or that you purchased the painting.

So, what if you left something mysterious, nebulous, or un-said about that painting that you're currently working on? Let the viewer add the details of the face if it's a painting with a person in it. Let the viewer's mind embellish the landscape in the area where you've left soft edges. Let the viewer put something of himself/herself into the painting that makes it truly theirs. Sometimes it's a sale when you do. . . . . . .