How a painting develops

People often ask how long a painting takes. The honest answer for Quiet Garden is six weeks, but only about nine hours of that was spent putting paint on linen.

It began as a very bright underpainting — almost aggressive, all warm coral. That layer is now completely buried, but it is the reason the finished surface glows the way it does through the greens.

“Most of the work happens in the layers nobody will ever see.”

Around week three I lost it entirely. The composition had become too tidy. I scraped back the top half with a palette knife and left it alone for a week.

The decision that saved it was removing the strongest shape and letting the space stay empty. That kind of subtraction is the hardest part of the process and always the one that matters most.