The Painting That Changed My Direction
Looking back, I realized this wasn’t just another unfinished painting. It quietly marked the
moment my art began changing direction.
30 June 2026
A couple of months ago I started writing about this painting, but never published it. I kept thinking I would finish the painting first. While looking through some of my unfinished canvases and unfinished writing this week, I realized something.
This painting wasn’t just another landscape. It marked a turning point. Looking back now, I can see it was one of the first pieces that carried me away from fluid art and toward the palette knife work I’ve been exploring ever since.
The painting still isn’t finished, but the thoughts I had while making it are. They deserve to be shared, even if the canvas and I aren’t quite done talking.
As often happens when I paint, this piece began with a completely different vision. It started with splashes of blue, gold, and orange, but the more I worked on it, the less I liked where it was going. Eventually, I got so frustrated that I covered the entire canvas in orange.
I felt defeated.
So I took the canvas outside with a brush, a palette knife, and just three colors: black, green, and yellow.
This time, I didn’t have a plan. I was in a dark mood, and I let that guide me. I began with streaks of black across the orange, and for the first time, it felt right.
As I worked, something unexpected started to emerge. The marks began to resemble mountains. I leaned into it, adding touches of green to create depth. The sky slowly shifted into something that felt like a glowing sunset.
At some point, I realized there was something here worth continuing.
Over the next several days, I returned to the painting in small sessions, gradually refining what had appeared.
I usually lean more toward abstract work than realism, but this piece seemed to ask for something different. It invited me to follow it a little further, to see what might happen if I stayed with it.
This piece is not finished yet. Sometimes a painting needs space just as much as I do. I’ll come back to it when we’re both ready to continue the conversation.
It was another good lesson in letting go and a reminder that when I paint from my heart instead of my mind, things often have a way of revealing themselves more naturally.
Looking back now, I don’t think this painting was trying to become a finished landscape. It was teaching me something else. It was showing me that my way of painting was beginning to change.
Maybe that’s why it still doesn’t feel finished. Some paintings aren’t meant to mark the end of a chapter. They’re meant to mark the beginning of the next one.