Never mind the details

I went to my temple the other day. Not a religious temple as most traditionally think, but my temple, the place where I feel inner peace, am able to reflect, think about life and study art, nature and history. 

That temple is the Metropolitan Museum of Art and I was able to bow to the Masters...Rembrandt, Homer and one of my favorites, John Singer Sargent.

Sargent was an American artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation". Portrait painting allowed him to gain commissions to earn a livelihood. 

The show at the Met, Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends celebrated the non-commissioned portraits that showcased his skills as an artist who can master creating a work of art with just a few brush strokes. 

I took the day to study his work, first by observation and then by copying. By studying his work, I learned the following:

1. Know when to stop: Sometimes over analyzing or overdoing something might kill the spirit of the work or take away the spontaneity that makes it special.
2. Observation: Cultivate an ever-continuous power of observation. Wherever you are, be always ready to take notes. Store up in the mind without stopping a continuous stream of observations from which to make selections later. Test what you remember by doing it over and over again until you have got them fixed.
3. Step Back:  The subtleties of whatever you are working on must be controlled by continually viewing the work from a distance.  Stand back – get well away – and you will realize the great danger there is over overstating something. Keep the thing as a whole in your mind.

Although I love the detailed completed work, the real passion and enjoyment was the actual doing and creation of the work. 

I started to get wrapped up in the details and I noticed myself getting more anxious as the time went on. 

The goal was not perfection...but to learn, relax and enjoy my time creating. 

Even as I write this post to you the question I ask myself is: when is it good enough?

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Have you fought with over analyzing something or making something more complicated than it has to be? Leave a comment below.