Okay, artistic breakthrough may be pushing it slightly... it smacks of a broad-reaching breakthrough. This was more like a breakthrough that I made on this particular painting.
This painting, "I Stand Alone" (the latest working title), is one I started a few years ago. Once or twice a year I pull it out and look at it, and sometimes work on it. It hasn't quite known what it wants to be, and consequently has gone through several stages over the years. There are many layers of paint on this one. And I keep thinking that it is just about finished but... the painting has a mind of it's own. (And even as I look at it now I see something I want to work on.)
Anyway, the breakthrough came when I added another little hill to the middle ground on each side of the painting. Actually I more discovered it than created it. It was kind of a happy accident. Artistic accidents are pretty much par for the course, and I consider them a part of the creative process. The key is to recognize and work with them, which involves letting go of control of what you wanted it to look like. Just like life, right? Things may not turn out the way you envisioned, but they work out. And sometimes much better than what you pictured.
In the case of my painting, I think the extra hill adds depth and interest to those sections, and the overall composition. I was quite happy to discover that hill!
And here is what I was listening to...
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