There is sometimes great emotion in letting go of a painting.

Most people assume that selling a painting is the fun part. It is wonderful to think that
someone likes your work enough to hang it in their home, but that means it leaves the
studio.

My paintings become my friends. Familiar pieces that I walk past many times a day. I assess and reassess them every time I see them. The painting will say to me “hey, there is something not believable about that cloud” or “you still need to add something in that bottom corner” or something along those lines.
I usually have taken many days getting excited about an idea, working on the construction of the painting and then having it keep me company as the oil paint dry’s and hardens to a point where it can be handled and transported.
The initial euphoria of someone choosing and paying for it is sometimes overtaken by the
sense of loss at it going away.

Paintings are meant to leave the studio. It is the core of why I paint. “To bring joy and colour into people’s homes and lives.” Still, it is a highly emotional process. The only way to stop looking at the gap where my latest painting was with a sense of panic is to prop up a new blank canvas and get ready to let inspiration sweep in and feel that bubble of excitement about starting from the beginning again with a new and exciting idea.