New paintings, hot off the easel, and some thoughts on art and life ...

Recently I painted something purely as a joke for a group of my art friends. We meet monthly and last month someone shared a quote by Norman Rockwell: "If there's something wrong with your painting, make it bigger. If there's still something wrong with your painting, make it red. And if there's still something wrong with your painting, add a dog with a bandaged foot."

Well, that inspired me because I happened to have a painting with something wrong. I wasn't sure what, but I knew it wasn't ready for prime time. It started as trees, like this:

I tried making it bigger, but that didn't work. Next I tried making it red, like this:

That was interesting in a weird kind of way, but still not right, so I decided to take Norman's advice to the next level, like this:

I call it "Norman's Dog" - what do you think of it??

I told this story as a joke to my art friends, then unveiled the finished painting (yes, the trees really are there underneath the dog). The whole presentation went well and everyone got a laugh. But I have to add that I learned some things while painting this. First lesson:  sometimes a painting can't be saved and you have to move on. I'd come to that conclusion with my trees, so I was free to have fun and plan my little joke. Second lesson:  Red does grab attention, doesn't it? Third lesson:  painting purely for fun can result in a pretty good painting!