![](https://1daaf9.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Bald-Eagle-flying-for-12-16-Jan-6-2020-for-ws.jpg?time=1722047626)
06 Jan Paintings started, paintings worked-on, but never paintings finished
Posted from Seattle, WA Jan 6, 2020
“…instantly paint what you see. When you’ve got it, you’ve got it. When you don’t, start over…” is a quote from Manet that appears in my book.
I however am at the far-other-end of the art world when it comes to the subject of continuing to work on old paintings in which the artist doesn’t feel they have instantly “got it.”
I don’t care if the image is 20 years old, I’m happy to keep working on it and I think I’ve achieved some reasonable successes with my “Never-stop-working” approach.
![](https://1daaf9.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Bald-Eagle-flying-for-12-16-Jan-6-2020-for-ws.jpg)
One painting that I didn’t like when I first finished is a painting that I call Bald Eagle flying to distinguish it from my other Bald Eagle paintings. But since it’s initial publication I haven’t done any major surgery or big changes, just try to refine the technical work, and I suddenly think it’s a decent painting. So much so that I am bringing it out soon as a Notecard.
![](https://1daaf9.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Rainier-in-Autumn-for-9-x-12-for-ws.jpg)
Another painting, this one from the last century, that I recently reworked is Rainier in Autumn, which shows another flying bird, a Clark’s Nutcracker, in front of a backdrop of Paradise and Rainier in high fall foliage. I fixed a lot of small things that have been bothering me for the last 20 years, but nothing that would stand out so in a casual glance you might think it’s the exact same painting.
![](https://1daaf9.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Caspian-Seattle-Bay-ptg-for-XL-october-16-2019-for-ws.jpg)
Here is my so-called self-hyped “masterpiece.” (I can be a failure at self-promotion sometimes). It’s no further along than last blog. I set it aside while I reworked my existing best-selling image “Seattle from the Bay,” which is now available in the huge size of XL 12 x 36 at the low, low price of $31.79 at the store. It is already selling well, and I’m promising to work more on Caspian Tern, which is intended to be my ultimate lifetime masterpiece.
![](https://1daaf9.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/seattle-from-the-bay-for-XL-December-5-final-for-ws.jpg)
This is Seattle from the Bay XL, now at the store. Caspian is intended to counter Bay with a completely different color balance and the suggestion of summer rather than other seasons. But I worry the composition of Caspian lacks dynamism.
![](https://1daaf9.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Gadwall-pair-ptg-jan-6-20-for-ws.jpg)
Here is a new start, “Gadwalls,” which is inspired by the fact that every now and then when I’m out in the field a Gadwall will strike a revealing (of it’s wing) pose and I realize this is not just some gray ordinary duck swimming around out there but a strikingly beautiful example of the Creation/Biodiversity of this world.
![](https://1daaf9.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Red-shouldered-Hawk-painting-for-ws-Jan-6-20.jpg)
Another bird that fits the same prose is the Red-shouldered Hawk, and this painting which I already put up on the last Easel blog, also gives me a chance to celebrate the Nisqually Refuge, where this particular hawk has resided this winter. It’s moving along slowly.
![](https://1daaf9.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Red-crowned-Parrots-ptg-for-ws-jan-6-20.jpg)
Red-crowned Parrots, this painting of an endangered species of birds of the Rio Grande valley in Texas, has been on previous Easel blogs. I am finding it slow-going to finish this but I am not discouraged and I still like the painting and hope to publish it.
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