Should We Destroy Them?

The following is an answer to a question posed by an artist to Robert Genn..I made my own decision about this problem a long time ago, but I know there are many artists, who as the years go by are constantly faced with this dilemma

From the artist ...Do you recommend painting over acrylic paintings or should they be kept for reflection? Since I’ve been at it for over 40 years, I have lots of paintings that used to be keepers, but which no longer show my present painting skills, my likes or my style. I wonder why I kept many of them. Should I destroy them? Or should I use them for supplies? I sometimes like the effect of painting over, but mostly this makes me lose my spontaneity and interferes with my current painting approach.”

From Robert ...Every so often we need to get busy and chuck—just in case some executor or offspring makes the mistake of thinking something’s okay. There’s enough bad art in the world already and we don’t want to add to it by leaving substandard stuff out and about. I don’t know about you, Roscoe, but that reflection you mentioned can be a living nightmare as well. We grow. We get better.

Regarding painting over, it’s a personal thing. Some painters don’t mind an underlying failure and accept it for any texture it may provide. On the other hand, many painters feel a failed or flawed image jinxes a canvas forever. No matter how obliterated by overlying gesso, it’s down there yelling that you’re a lousy painter.

A virgin canvas with a favourite ground has a kind of unsullied decency that a used canvas can never have. As spontaneity is a valued asset, dump the interference. Painters need to identify and tune into those seemingly minor fetishes that cause the spirit to flourish.

Now for something completely different: Some artists have a sense of preciousness about every squiggle or splodge they make. They hang onto stuff with tenacity, even building archives to rival The Ark of the Covenant. I’ve always put this down to poor toilet training, but it may also have something to do with ego blow or the expectation of a place in the history of art. Curiously, this sense of intrinsic brilliance is a condition frequently rampant among artists whose work is of low challenge or difficult for anyone to criticize, including themselves.

“All that we are not stares back at what we are.” (W. H. Auden) “I know it’s very egocentric to believe that someone is put on Earth for a reason. In my case, I like to think I was.” (Art Buchwald)

If you do paint new over old acrylics, make sure you remove any final protective coat before you lay down new gesso or other primer. Ordinary household ammonia takes off most final acrylic varnishes. Before you prime, you’ll need to sand the surface as well. Sometimes a sanded surface yields something new and interesting—then you’re back to the same old problem.

Robert Genn is a very well known artist of international repute, who runs an art listing site called The Painters Keys…he has given me permission to reprint his very wise words in my pages…

By the way…my decision?...I destroy, and anything not sold, donated gifted or bequeathed, will also be destroyed after my death. Janis
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