Uploaded September 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
What do you do when a painting just isn’t working — especially when you’ve already invested hours of time, thought and paint into it?
This week in the studio, I’m tackling three paintings I’ve been avoiding. One needs some careful refinement, one has become muddy and lost its way, and the third is what I call a “dead-end painting”: not terrible, not finished, but completely stuck.
I take three very different approaches to getting them moving again, using sanding, soft pastel, charcoal, paint, trowels and some fairly drastic changes. Along the way, I share how I decide what a painting needs, why knowing your intention matters, and why sometimes the only way to save a painting is to risk ruining it.
I also found myself thinking about the idea of “sunk costs” — the tendency we have to keep going with something simply because we’ve already invested so much in it. It happens in painting, but it happens in life too. Sometimes the thing we’re most reluctant to change is exactly the thing keeping us stuck.
This is part of my ongoing Artist’s Diary, documenting my life in the studio as I develop a new body of figurative paintings exploring family photographs, memory, time and the traces that remain.
#PaintingProcess #ArtistDiary #ArtProcess #ContemporaryArt #FigurativePainting #Painting #ArtistStudio #CreativeProcess #MixedMediaArt
Join my weekly artist's newsletter at louisefletcherart.com/newsletter-artists.
Each week, I share tips, tricks, advice, and inspiration to help you take your art to the next level.
You can also find me:
On Facebook at facebook.com/louisefletcherart
On Instagram at instagram.com/louisefletcher_art
What do you do when a painting just isn’t working — especially when you’ve already invested hours of time, thought and paint into it?
This week in the studio, I’m tackling three paintings I’ve been avoiding. One needs some careful refinement, one has become muddy and lost its way, and the third is what I call a “dead-end painting”: not terrible, not finished, but completely stuck.
I take three very different approaches to getting them moving again, using sanding, soft pastel, charcoal, paint, trowels and some fairly drastic changes. Along the way, I share how I decide what a painting needs, why knowing your intention matters, and why sometimes the only way to save a painting is to risk ruining it.
I also found myself thinking about the idea of “sunk costs” — the tendency we have to keep going with something simply because we’ve already invested so much in it. It happens in painting, but it happens in life too. Sometimes the thing we’re most reluctant to change is exactly the thing keeping us stuck.
This is part of my ongoing Artist’s Diary, documenting my life in the studio as I develop a new body of figurative paintings exploring family photographs, memory, time and the traces that remain.
#PaintingProcess #ArtistDiary #ArtProcess #ContemporaryArt #FigurativePainting #Painting #ArtistStudio #CreativeProcess #MixedMediaArt
Join my weekly artist's newsletter at louisefletcherart.com/newsletter-artists.
Each week, I share tips, tricks, advice, and inspiration to help you take your art to the next level.
You can also find me:
On Facebook at facebook.com/louisefletcherart
On Instagram at instagram.com/louisefletcher_art
