Spring cleaning

I have a lot of unfinished pieces taking up space, awaiting resolution. The dilemma is deciding which ones should be cremated.

Have any of you tried burning oil paintings in a fireplace? It just sounds like toxic fumes to me, especially if there is varnish or retouch varnish involved. Your thoughts or experience?

In addition to painting, I also do mixed media collage work, so paintings on paper that don’t make the cut end up in the pile of “paper to be torn up to put in a collage.” On the other hand, if it’s a painting on canvas that I don’t like, I’ll just use it as a base for something else, or gesso over it and start again.

Thank you. Thank you.I had a burning which was a response to my thinking about what my sons would do if I should pass away. They would have a week from their jobs to take care of my things and make decisions. To spare them this added anguish, I kept the best, took photos of the mediocre, and burned the rest. It de-cluttered my mind as well as my studio and gave me purpose — keep improving.

Let me share this story. My wife is my best fan but her enthusiasm far surpasses her evaluation of the quality of art. She has hauled out some of my most immature paintings and exuberantly presented them for the examination of visitors. I shudder when I see this happen for I feel that they belittle my reputation. So, I have been quietly and covertly, putting these works to death – only keeping the occasional one as markers of my development. Keeping this stuff brings with the it the potential of having your works survive your own mortality and gaining a second life of circulation. Its too risky.

I have been agonizing for at least six months (or longer) and talking to various patrons, friends, family and on-line artists about having a “blog sale” of studies, plein air, and unsold work. I know, I should not have a “sale” and lower prices. These are works that have merit but did not find their owner the first time around. My husband and family are adamant to not destroy them. So, what is an artist to do. Burn them on the sly? I even have a problem with burning them.

Please din’t burn anything but seasined hardwood and appropriate kindling materials in your fireplace! Other materials may create buildup on your chimney flue and help create conditions leading to chimney fire, which could destroy your chimney or even burn down your house. Perhaps your community has a place for burning, if it is illegal to do so on your own property.

A burn is a tempting offering to the Fates and Muses. (And, as a pyromaniac – who isn’t one? – and someone who used to build bonfires for a living, I am easily tempted that direction myself.) But catapulting atomized cadmium and all those other heavy metals and carcinogens into the atmosphere and hence into others’ arenas of Fate, is probably not a good idea. A simple decent burial would probably be far more responsible for oil and acrylic paintings.

Nancy (who rightly didn’t want to burn painted canvases in the fireplace) — I always just paint over my old paintings that didn’t work. Scrape off excess texture, coat them with a neutral tone, let dry, and just start over! A lot of my watercolorist friends use the backs of old paintings, or tear them up for collage, or cut interesting pieces out to rework as something new. I suppose you could even pulp them if you do papermaking. It beats having to buy new materials if you don’t have to.

I am doing some digital decluttering, but at this rate, and this age, I’d better strive to live to 110. Thanks to cost benefit analysis in the health care business, that probably won’t happen.

I am ruthless when it comes to cleaning out my studio. Its like going through your closet sorting out clothes. Whatever I haven’t worn in a year, bought on sale that STILL has the tags on it or will fit when I loose ten pounds, is punted. It is just too distracting to have my studio cluttered up with Duds. If nobody has looked or even sniffed at a piece for a year, destroy it. Like getting the bats out of the attic, these static pieces can be distracting and disturbing. Life is a series of letting go. Once you get over the anxiety of getting rid of something, like somehow speeds up and gets better.

I prefer to recycle canvas after stripping it down and painting over it with a heavy glaze. But if you don’t want to a utility knife works well. Reuse the stretchers. Slice it to shredding consistency and move on.

I had the job of helping friends to go through the estate of another artist who saved almost everything, not only her art related stuff but her parents who were artists, too. What a job! She lived in the same small apartment for 29 years. You had to navigate through narrow paths to another area or room. She suffered from brain cancer for 7 years, lived alone and my dear friend just couldn’t cope. She could have been on one of the hoarders shows. It made me think about what would happen to my art stuff. Moving helped me to reduce my accumulated artworks, thinking what would my family have to do when I died. Not a good chore to leave others.

Laura, your “endangered” work, so-called, is really very nice. You may be able to do even better, making these seem second rate. But Robert is right. Keep these for the reasons he gives. I tell students to keep early work to look at when they have been painting for a while and think they’re not making progress. Old work can instantly show you what strides you have made.

Let’s not burn chemicals in the household woodstove people, that’s just an opportunity for half-burnt slimy gunk to build up in the flue and cause a fire!

Old Oil paintings make great bags to carry home groceries, etc….

LAURA STOP… don’t destroy these. I’d be one of those people that would enjoy receiving one. For me these paintings are great. I love what others call “imperfect”… to me they’re perfect.

It’s not just about old drawings and paintings. After sorting through all my mother’s belongings after her recent death, I realized I should go home and purge myself of all sorts of stuff I was keeping for reasons unknown — bills, books, bad photos, old letters, clothing not worn, dried out tubes of paint, sad brushes, you get the picture. Why should my kids have to do it someday? Fortunately or unfortunately, I am a collage artist, and am finding a lot of this junk potentially useful in the work so it just gets moved, not tossed. Ah, the downside of the creative soul.

Fredericks, that’s so funny, I know exactly what you are talking about. I have actually hidden some old poorly done pieces that I keep for sentimental reasons, so that they don’t get enthusiastically shown to visitors. Of course, there is a show from time to time of “trying to find them” and wondering “where on earth they might be”… you gotta love your best fans!

Always enjoy your messages and how quite often magically you touch buttons of synchronicity even while I’m moving from painting to printing.

At one time I too had the urge to throw a bunch of my paintings into the dumpster. I had over 30 paintings on 1/8″ masonite that I got rid of by standing on them to break them up. I had taken photos of some of them, and since regretted throwing out some of them. I can see now what I could have done to improve on them. Some of them just needed a little sanding, and a little more work, and voila.

Laura’s paintings that you placed on the clickback, are, in my opinion, beautiful and do not merit burning. She should mat them, and shrink wrap them, and let the buyer worry about framing them. If the buyer is a young person with not enough money to buy a frame, he/she can hang them as is, until they can afford a frame.

I’ve always understood that there are a lot of hazardous chemicals in many types of paint and that burning is illegal in many places for good reasons (of health and reducing environmental damage)….? Am I mistaken, or was this a cavalier suggestion that was made without thinking about ecological damage? Surprised at the recommendation.

Hi Laura,

Before tossing anything out, I look over work carefully, often using a small cardboard viewfinder. There is very often something worth salvaging which I keep in a file or pin up on the wall for awhile. I encourgage my students to do this too. Once I even found that by cutting a watercolour into three pieces, the compositions succeeded individually much better than they had as a whole.

On the question on what to do with paintings one is not totally satisfied with… those directed to the Salon des Refugees, I find that I can keep a record of the work done by means of a jpeg image filed electronically . Thereafter, I usually recycle the paper, canvas,board,etc. by either gessoing over or simply painting on top of, using the “rejected” piece as an underpainting, the colours of which can come through and shine again in the new creation. The painting becomes reincarnated, so to speak . In these days of economic hard times, and expensive art materials, I find this is a good way for the artist to recycle good paper, canvas, board,etc. Long live pentimento!

Years ago while wintering in Florida and taking a workshop, a lady sat at the end of my table. She was most enjoyable, had great spirit and was also helpful. Now I belong to the Martin County Arts Council, of which the lady is a member, and we paint together plein air when I am in residence in Florida each winter.

Why not recycle the canvases, i.e. paint over them?

Hoarders, I could be one but I know too many, move too often, and am allergic to mold and dust.

First I want to say “Good for you!” for doing some spring cleaning! Then I would add to Robert’s comments to take a photo of each of the major pieces you are disposing of. If you are really organized, you can keep a dated record of what was done when, and make a few notes about each piece; positive or negative impressions and results. You never know someday after you are gone, your family or perhaps the world will want to know more about you and “get inside your head”. After all I am sure Vincent Van Gogh never dreamed his letters would be published for the whole world to read someday!

Many years ago, 15 I think, I was moving to the US for a few years to realize a project my partner was involved in.

If an ‘abstract’ piece does not work for me, I know and I chuck it, the same for any representational piece I might do. I guess one has to be observant and critical of one’s own work and not settle for mediocrity in any genre. It’s in the doing and truly loving it. Having fun!

When it comes to old, substandard, unwanted art, I think of the famous remark used by the black radical leader H.Rap Brown back in the sixties. ‘Burn, baby, burn!!!” I’ve got a pile developing myself that will accompany some brush, twigs and cardboard soon. A raging iferno is cleansing. Afterward, I feel like I have had a wonderful shower after a day of hard labor. Artists can’t afford to have fire sale this studio debris and have it sullying their reputation. As they say you only get one chance to make a first impression. Let it be a positive one. I don’t let myself feel negative, though. Each painting taught me something and helped me along on the long journey of improvement that must be an inner goal of every artist. Maybe I should raise a toast as the flames shoot up to the heavens. I say honor the effort you gave and move on to better and better.

My rejects are all waiting in line for the big “paint out” — or I should say the big “painting out.” Can’t bear the thought of all that cutting panels and stretching and nailing to go to waste, not to mention the gallons of premium gesso used in the preparation process.

As a former art teacher’s take on Laura dilemma about her “old” work: I had an art exhibit each year in which every student I had during the year was represented. Sometimes, we (the student and I) had to really work to find something that was worthy of hanging, but there was usually something – and fragment, a corner, something that was “good”, which we would isolate and frame. Even now, I often take some of my “not so good” work, cut out the good sections, and make them into small, unframed works, note cards, tags, background for other work, collages, etc. And they really can be delightful. (The rest I trash.)

Laura’s work doesn’t look like throwaway to me!

While disposing a bad paintings is a good idea, burning in a fireplace sounds a bit scary. Cadmium and other toxins turning into fumes, Yikes! Obviously you’re not going to burn canvases with oils and acrylics in the fireplace.

I appreciate your bonpyre (sic) recommendations in your spring cleaning article. You’re spot on. My own suggestion is that out of accidental tragedies new sphinxes arise. Don’t overlook to photograph your bonfires or breakages or ripping fits of madness as they may turn out surrealistic masterpieces in the form of freshly singed drawings or paintings or sculptural subjects.

I recommend the fire method, very cleansing and good for my soul, I save em up and have a fire once a year or so, becomes hard to stop though as it feels so good. Others might question my selection of donations for the fire so I do it when alone. I set up the camera and take a picture as they go in.

I believe in keeping the piles down. When you do Life Drawing every week, paper piles up. I keep a few quick conte’ sketches to put up for an Open Studio as people are interested in what a one or two minute sketch looks like, but the rest just get burned in the fireplace. They are practice drawings after all – and the carbon contributes to the compost box and ultimate beauty of the garden.

When I was teaching Watercolour classes, I found that if I made a few small “L”s or matts I could often find a gem in some of the pieces. This started as way to get the student to think of how and why they did that section and help them be more aware of their actions. Because I was doing quite a bit of demonstrating, I too had many not fit for sale pieces. I began to look for small sections that I found interesting and cut them out, then decide either to use it as a “jump” off section for an abstract painting OR use pastels and work back into it, making a nice little painting that quite often attached to a card/envelope and gave to a friend or relative when needed. Many of these came out better then expected and and the balance of the painting it came from was destroyed. This can not be done with Oil paintings but can be with Acrylics.

When I was first beginning to paint, in Prince George we had a visiting instructor, with whom you may be familiar, Anne Meredith Bary(? spelling). She had a summer studio in Newfoundland. She did a spring cleaning when she got there and put her discards out in the garbage. Soon, tourists were calling at her studio and asking to see further work. And she said, “My rotten kids were selling my rejects on the street, downtown!” A good early lesson. Mine are either committed to the pyre or gessoed over, depending on the medium. I’ve had lots of great fires!

One of the most wonderful results of having a piece you do not like is that you have no vested interest in it so you are free to go ahead and take risks in painting, collaging, pasteling, and such on top of what you have done so far. You have nothing to lose, so you feel quite free. And sometimes surprises happen….

Some of us are lucky enough to be able to use water instead of fire; I can wash away work I don’t think is good enough to sell. I paint in soft pastels on sanded paper that can handle water media. When I have a painting I want to get rid of, I just wash it off with water — and reuse the paper that now has an interesting underpainting! One of these just won a prize in a juried show. I find it very freeing and fun.

LEARN DON’T BURN: In response to “Spring Cleaning” I think as artist we must be careful what we discard. Pieces that have special meaning even if they will never see the light of a gallery should be saved. Be very careful what you decide to get rid of. I learn from my old work. I have an extremely hard time getting rid of any artwork that I do. I even have drawings that my mother lovingly saved from the age of 5. My college student work is very very important to me as it represents milestones in my learning curve. I look back at those drawings and paintings and can immediately place myself in the classroom or the location where it was painted. I remember my professors and other students who contributed to my artistic pursuit. The next ten years after that were also important milestone years. The paintings range in subject matter and quality, but all of them have a special place in my psyche. The next ten years after that are very important pieces of work to me. Most of the better pieces are in private collections but many paintings have not been sold. I always make sure to take a picture of paintings that are sold for my records. If you intend to hold on to your work you must protect them from damage. If you don’t have a lot of storage space a good way to “warehouse” your work is to give a gift of a painting you really love to someone who you know will appreciate it and offer a painting to a family member or good friend to hang them on their walls. They can be retrieved in the future for a show if need be. I have seen a real link to what I am doing now and work from twenty years ago. I have greater control and facility compared to the older paintings but the imagery has similar qualities. Personally, I think this is a positive thing. For me, the “constant” reflects a continous thread that has much to do with how I feel as much as how I paint. I have revisited those paintings from earlier years from time to time to “evaluate” what it is that I liked about them or what it is I do not like and will try not to repeat in my new work. I have a large closet that I keep this personal work in and probably will never show them unless it is pertinent to a retrospective. I do not think it is in our best interest to simply sell inferior pieces of work. Only display and sell work that you are proud of and has meaning. If you really don’t love the piece than by all means burn it.

I’m having an inventory sale right now and have had a lot of interest in the first few days. Not everyone sees the artwork same way as I do. Paintings are moving that were scheduled for burning. As far as I look at it it’s money in my pocket. However I do have a time limit on the sale. When it’s all over, the inferiors burn.

What an good idea to give studies and other older work to visiting friends to the gallery. Every art competition around wants recent work – like in the last 3 years, so over time, I’ve got scads of art……can hardly move around in the studio. Keep up your good advice.

Nobody mentioned another thing you can do with paintings that just don’t cut it. Use them for collage material, and of course you can paint on both sides of the paper.

I had a young artist come help me sort & dispose of old inferior work. Since we attend the same church, she suggested I donate the frames for future projects. I agreed and also gave her some canvases I thought could be used and painted over. Well, a week after the donation I was walking past the teen room when she stuck her head out the window and said, ” how do you like where I hung your painting?” I said , “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”. She said, ” look in.” To my horror was a huge orange painting I had done 30 yrs ago ( a sunrise and saguaro cactus). I thought I was a young ingenue in those days painting my Arizona childhood memories Loved the painting then, when I was in my orange phase. I’m now horrified that anyone will see it, much less than any congregation member who passes the teen room. Oh by the way my young artist helper thinks it’s fantastic, as do all of the teens. They have painted the room a complimentary orange, and found a rug with the same. I hate it and can’t take it back! Beware of generous urges! Especially to churches.

Hi Robert, as long as we have a hand we are keeping doing things.

I love the fire idea except for one kind of important thing. Some pigments put off very toxic fumes when burnt. Maybe to a good idea not to do it in the house. http://www.stevebrownartis.com

Even Beethoven disposed of work that didn’t meet his standards!

Being a compulsive cleaner-outer, I have done 2 or 3 interesting things with older, but still good quality paintings. The one that made me feel the best (and gave me a small tax deduction) was donating framed pieces to the Cancer Center at our local hospital…people undergoing treatment get to choose a painting for their room and I can’t think of a better feeling than giving someone in that situation a bit of painted joy. I have also removed pieces from frames or good mats and donated the latter to the art department in one of our poorer school districts (I was so taken with their appreciation that I also cleaned out old watercolor supplies and papers etc. and gave those away. I always keep some pieces in a large file that were important to me at one time, but I do destroy the others…cutting them up or slashing them…I can’t burn them so I have to risk the dumpster, but I make them pretty hard to resuscitate. I enjoy your letters…

The unwanted paintings, unlike your other work which I enjoyed seeing, look incomplete. Perhaps you could approach a senior artist for some suggestions as to how you might resolve these pieces.

Hi Laura…what I have discovered over the years…on those “not so great paintings”…is that I no longer destroy them RIGHT AWAY…but put them into a stack, and check them again, maybe 5 months later.

John W. Hilton had an annual custom – to burn an entire year’s accumulation of his own paintings which he had decided unworthy of him. This ritual was carried out at the stroke of midnight every New Years eve in Box Canyon. It was a holocaust of art. It was a symbol too. He was determined to paint the things he saw with his soul. But his hands would not obey the commands of his mind. He knew his depictions of the desert were not what he wished. He was uncompromising. He would not permit them to continue to exist. “How we wish,” said some, “that we could burn up all our mistakes of the year like John does his paintings!”

I ‘recycle’ my substandard and unwanted work. If it’s on watercolor paper, I texture it and then do a painting in acrylic that I glue to a canvas board or similar backing to then be framed and sold. Or, you can glue it to a gallery-wrap canvas leaving about 1/2 to 1” boarder as a ‘mat’, then varnish the whole thing and it is ready to hang and sell.

My medium is textiles so when a piece is really beyond redemption I donate it to the local humane society where it quietly becomes an anonymous cat hammock or dogbed depending on the size.

These works are beautiful (no sign of black though!). As with all art, it’s important to do the research – find fine art galleries that specialize in the kind of art that you are hoping to place. In Ausby’s case, contemporary abstract. One of the museums that exhibited his work previously or the college where he taught might also be interested in a memorial show. Take your time – don’t do anything rash for the first few months…

When I first scrolled down to Rollin Kocsis’ happy painting, Where the Road Goes, my mind took me “sledding” down the “red snow”…SUCH fun! I love this painting; makes me happy and energized!

All of the comments and suggestions mentioned are good food for thought. I have received some emails telling me to stop and not burn the paintings shown on the clickback. No fear, these items shown are images that Robert took from my blog and are not the ones that will be pitched/burned/tossed or whatever I end up doing. Those “firesale” studies/sketches etc. are not in the blogoshere. It’s interesting to note that some of my best work shown in these images from my blog are also those that some have encouraged me to get rid of! A bit discouraging for me…

The art business has a problem in taking responsibility for the many toxic materials we use. I have seen artists working with solvents and aerosols that in a commercial graphic arts shop are never handled without a vent hood. When the works are complete they may be stable but the toxins in paint and other products will be released if burned. In our small community we have regulations on disposal of industrial wastes, pesticides, herbicides, housepaint, oil, solvent, batteries, tires etc. Your paintings contain some of the same components that industrial regulations treat as pollutants and regulate disposal methods. Please consult your local fire department, environmental by-laws, responsible municipal government officials and provincial environmental authorities. It is not sustainable to damage our planet in the name of art, we must be more responsible. For acrylic artists has anyone tried a power washer to strip canvas? It works on houses perhaps it could strip canvas to a reusable state as well.

There is a blessing and a curse in working in the acrylic medium. The blessing is that if a painting isn’t working the canvas can be overpainted or started anew. The curse is the rogues gallery of failed paintings lined up for their “makeovers.”

I’ve never been prolific, yet I have bins full of work. I go through them and each time discard a few more pieces. Eventually, I expect to get through with the culling, but it sometimes seems like an endless process. I have to be done with a piece. I have to have finished learning from it. I have to know I don’t want to see it on my wall, or anyone else’s. Then it goes. After a year of not painting — or anything else, for that matter– due to health issues, I again went through the exercise and was amazed that I’d wound up with less than half what I’d begun with. As odd as it might sound, I was very pleased. There are some strings that are meant to be cut.

Cassandra, acrylic paint is thermoplastic. Try scrubbing the painting under very hot water. I have relatively easily scrubbed areas on a painting to raw canvas this way.

I have found old paintings to be very useful as a basis for new paintings, particularly when the old painting is on a board. I sand the old paintings down to create a smoother surface and also to simplify the texture by removing some of the thicker brushstrokes. When I start a new painting, I look through some of these old boards to see if any of my scraped down paintings have some colors that might harmonize in the new painting, or that have some nice accent colors. Then I use that as my new canvas.

Another idea for cleaning out is to take digital shots of everything, put them on a CD and just file it. You can trip down memory lane or get ideas from running through your less then best stuff on your computer and not have to store them.

burn your work? think it’s a bad idea —— as how can U tell how the progress of your work is doing??? The ones I didn’t think were worth while keeping I destroyed– but necver burned — the ones-I didn’t like — I keep for reference as 2 — how I am doing now —

Please, Laura Tovar Dietrick-don’t burn those paintings or throw them out. They are beautiful. I only wish I had work of such fine quality.