The painting I nearly scrapped got a small commission out of nowhere
I spent three weeks fighting a harbor scene and finally gave up on it one night, shoved it in the back of my closet. Pulled it out two months later mostly to see if the canvas was worth reusing, and you know what, it was actually fine. A few glazes later I really liked it.
Ended up hanging it at a little craft fair in November. Not expecting anything from it, it was the piece I kept apologizing for when people stopped at my table. A woman came back twice to look at it and ended up asking if I could do something similar for her lake house. Smaller, different colors, but same idea. She just sent me the deposit.
I keep thinking about how close that painting came to being gessoed over. Also the timing is funny because I'm exactly the kind of person who would've talked myself out of even putting it on the table. Glad I didn't.
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That's how it goes half the time. The pieces you fight are the ones with something worth fighting over. It's when it comes easy you should worry.
Good on you for not scraping it, though. Most people kill the thing before it's done. Pulling it out later with fresh eyes is underrated, and it sounds like that's exactly what it needed.
The lake house commission is interesting. Just don't let her steer you into making a copy of the same thing in different colors. Take the bones of it, sure, but the first one happened because of what you put into it. Repainting it to match the couch is how you water it down.
You're right about not letting her steer it into a straight copy. I've done the "same painting, different color" thing before for a repeat customer and it's never as good the second time. The bones idea is smart though, take the composition and let it become its own piece.
And yeah, the fresh eyes thing is real. I've got a couple of canvases stashed away that I was ready to gesso over and I'm glad I didn't. Something about walking away and coming back later just clears it all up.
Congrats on the commission, that's a nice feeling when a piece you'd written off ends up being the one that sells itself.
You're spot on about the fighting part. I look back at the pieces I've actually sold and nearly all of them had a moment where I was ready to gesso over the whole thing. The easy ones, I don't even remember painting them.
And yeah, the copy thing worries me a little. She was pretty specific about wanting the same feel but in her colors, and I kind of want to do it because it's a commission and a good one to have at the craft fair level. But I've told her I'd want to change some things up, keep the bones but not do a straight repeat. She seemed okay with that, so we'll see.
The fresh eyes thing though, that's the real lesson. I don't know why we think a piece is doomed just because we're sick of looking at it. Two months in the closet did more for that painting than three weeks of me fussing ever did.