Failed Painting in a Jar 2
Sometimes, a painting simply doesn’t work out. However, the final object—regardless of its success—represents many, many hours of labour. That labour was not completely unfruitful. It was spent exploring mark-making, processing emotions and developing skills.
To me, a failed painting has a poignancy that a successful painting does not. It represents so much time and energy. Malcolm Gladwell suggested that we need “10,000 hours of deliberate practice” to master anything we want to become an ‘expert’ in.
This painting, originally called Jonas Salk (Polio) and painted for my 2021 Microscapes exhibition at Gibsons Public Art Gallery, did not sell from that show. It sat in my storage until 2025, when I decided to paint over it. I decided to turn the whole thing into one of my grid series called Weavings.
The original iteration of this painting was called Jonas Salk (Polio).
I actually really liked this painting.
Not content to just leave this painting alone, I decided to add it to my WIP series.
More about the WIP Series
The determination of when a painting is complete is often one of the most subjective decisions in abstract practice. In this series of works in progress, that decision is deliberately deferred. Each painting remains unresolved until it is collected, at which point the work is considered complete. Until then, I continue to intervene, revise, and extend the surface, making each successive state visible through ongoing public documentation. Read more here.
I decided to go from straight lines to curves. Yikes!
It did improve. I actually really liked it at this stage.
The only problem was this one tiny bit…
But, of course. I went too far. Sigh.
This painting was 48 x 48″, so not tiny. I tried unstretching it so I could flip it and use the back side of the canvas. But sadly, the paint was so thick at this point that it was virtually impossible.
So, in the end, the entire thing was pointless and ruined. I tried a few other things but finally had to admit defeat.
This is what it looked like, just before I cut it up.
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